Now that your brother’s Spring Break is over, it’s time for one of your own. I drove Nonna back to our house when I picked her up last weekend from Alabama.
Mommy has been out of town this week for a business trip, so to help things run smoother, Nonna is here to help! That means you get a week-long break from your preschool, with Nonna as your teacher at our house.
I’m so happy that you get to spend a solid week with Nonna one-on-one, just like she got to do with your brother last week.
Last week while you were on Spring Break, you got to stay in Alabama with Nonna and Papa; which is also where your two cousins (on my side of the family) live.
As a complete surprise to your cousin Calla, who is also in 2nd grade, you showed up for lunch at her school. I can imagine how happy she was to see you.
Some of her classmates assumed that you were a new student in their class, and tried to take you in as one of their own.
Since you and your cousin don’t have Spring Break the same week, stopping in for a surprise lunch is a good way for the two of you to hang out.
But maybe one day, you’ll both actually have Spring Break at the same time.
A couple of weeks ago when we were out buying your brother some soccer cleats and shin guards at Play It Again Sports, Mommy and I decided it would also be a good idea to buy you and your brother helmets for when the two of you play on your bikes out in the court.
We lucked out and were able to buy basically brand-new helmets for less than $10 each.
You were so proud of yours, that you insisted on wearing it in the car.
And at the mall.
And once we got home and you played in the living room.
In your mind, a safety helmet is categorized the same as any other item of clothing. And since you love clothes possibly more than toys, it was common knowledge, that of course, you would be wearing your helmet accordingly.
It has become an undeniable tradition that in our home, after dinner, you and your sister decide to play what I refer to as Supermarket Sweep.
This is when you grab your sister’s baby doll stroller, and she takes her toy shopping cart (filled with toy groceries), and the two of you compete in a series of races; back and forth literally from one side of the house to the other.
While it is a contest of speed for the two of you, I see it as a contest of who is having more fun- you and your sister.
So, it appears to have been a tie every single time!
It was about three years ago, when I turned 35, that I taught myself one of the most life-changing lessons (and secrets) about the human experience:
That 100% of the time, no matter what anyone else says to me or about me, I always get to decide whether or not I will allow that person to hurt my feelings, insult me, or disrespect me. Similarly, it’s always a choice as to whether I will forgive another person, regardless of what they have done.
Imagine the freedom that I have been able to appreciate these past few years knowing this unspoken nugget of wisdom: That I alone control how I feel in relation to other people… unless I allow them to control me.
That bit of information is one of the greatest gifts I have received in my life so far. If only I could have known this all along!
Contrast that to the illusion that most people live in: Most people, by default, believe this about themselves:
“I’m a good person. Well, I may not be a saint, but at least I’m not an ax murderer.”
This mindset is generically based on the ideologies of Buddhism and Hinduism. Ultimately, people rely on the flaky concept of karma to determine what good things they do deserve in life and what bad things they don’t deserve in life.
Here’s the problem: Karma, in this understanding, doesn’t actually exist.
Children have terminal cancer. Meanwhile, white collar criminals go unpunished their entire lives because they have the luxury of being called politicians.
Most people make themselves constant easy targets to be offended or disrespected because they believe they are moral people who “deserve better”, while they ironically deny the fact that only they alone decide whether another person offends or disrespects them.
Here’s where I’m at in life:
I don’t see myself as a good person or a bad person. I am a person.
I make good decisions and I make bad decisions.
I don’t deserve good and I don’t deserve to escape bad. I ultimately can’t control those things as much as I would like to.
Instead, I can control my own emotions; especially in regards to how I react to other people.
As goofy as it sounds, being a YouTuber and a blogger for the past several years has taught me this:
People in the comments section are constantly hoping to label me as one of the following:
Wrong, ignorant, and/or immoral.
I feel that in the real world, it’s the same way. People are insecure within themselves and haven’t fully figured out their own identity, so they look for people who will get offended, insulted, or allow their feelings to be hurt when it is applied they are wrong, ignorant, and/or immoral.
So imagine the power you have when you are instantly ready to agree with a person like that:
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