Day 2,788

Growth:

After icing my Achilles for a while at work I stood up and it felt amazing! There was no tightness, no soreness, and it felt like normal. How many times have I taken “normal” for granted? Had I not started getting some pain in it I likely would never have noticed normal. Pain and soreness suck, for sure. They are both excellent tools for reminding me to appreciate health when I have it. I’ll do my best to avoid pain, but when it happens I know I can still choose appreciation.

Appreciation:

Tonight was a good balance of some family time with each of the boys and Becky. From the point I got home until now as I am heading to bed I’ve gotten some time with each person one on one. Always love getting all four of us together, but sometimes being a little disjointed like this can be nice too. Being able to focus 100% on each other is pretty cool and allows for different conversations. I wasn’t expecting that tonight, it just worked out that way, and I’m very thankful for it.

Presence:

Last night I’d typed up my blog and was just about to head to bed when Gavin got home from his track meet. I thought he’d be pretty pumped, he had a successful first meet with the long jump, but I was way off. He came in frustrated, angry, and ready to come unglued. Turns out that he had not prepared for his speech for the next day (today) as he should have and he was having a minor meltdown due to the stress. Rather than go to bed like I wanted I stayed up and worked through the speech with him. I listened intently while he practiced while simultaneously keeping my cool and remembering to “coach” him rather than give him a hard time or get frustrated with him. It took all my focus, but I stayed present with him. I promptly crashed into bed… about an hour later than expected. All good and all worthwhile. He crushed it in his practice round this morning before I went to work and got excellent reviews in class.

Sometimes I’d rather be sleeping than present, or I’d rather get frustrated than keep my headspace where it should be, but last night I’m thankful for staying present when Gavin needed it. I’m thinking this may be one of those memories that will stick with him for quite some time – it will for me! 😉

Thanks!!!