c'est la vie

Read a very interesting article this week .... if you could tell your kids 10 things .... what would it be .... and obviously various people, given the vast differences in their kid's ages ..... gave a wide variety of answers.  I also had an interesting conversation with a friend today about teenagers and how I felt that COMMUNICATION is the number 1 tool (and I have a 16 yr old and a 20 yr old).  And that listening is part of that.  Not waiting for your child's lips to stop moving so you can butt in .... but listening and actually hearing what they are saying.  It does not matter how old they are, at every age they are allowed to have an opinion and their own thought process.  Listening goes a long way in cementing this relationship.  So the 10 things I would tell my 16 year old son:  Always be a gentleman (he is).  Opening doors, letting ladies walk first, pulling out her chair for her to sit.  Be this.  Even if she is not ladyli...

Yesterday I went on a "moms" retreat and one of the talks was on "when we say Yes to motherhood, what are we saying yes to?" - it had a profound effect on me to write down what it is exactly .... whilst sitting in silence next to a beautiful water feature, by myself, with only my head and my heart as my companions.  Having written that, I last night started to wonder about other things ....or contemplating as Francis told us ... which is it seems "looking at with love".... I was looking at (with love) what we say Yes to when we say yes to marriage ... and what are we saying Yes to when we say yes to a choice of career / job / work.  Motherhood's yes was very easy ... I filled 5 pages of the notebook yesterday ... I said Yes to - a job you cannot resign from, a job with no leave, the first step, the first tooth, the first school day, the first heartbreak, first all kinds of things.  I said Yes to rolling eyes, slamming doors, laundry with no end, lo...