A Teetering Nation

At this moment trees are still of wind. Last night entirety of trees were bend and unable to recover from blast after blast of ripping wind and rain sheets wind. It seem appropriate to me on the eve of an important holiday.

I’ve been reading and rereading a book on how to talk and listen to a child. It takes patience and an enormous amount of practice. It’s never a generic process. No human being is alike. So…I try to think how I want to be spoken to as an adult and how I would have liked to be spoken to as child.

I’ve been yelled at, blackmailed, coerced, physically hurt and threatened. Fear as a whip and tactic can be successful for someone who is stronger and bigger. I can’t say I haven’t used my adulthood-card on my children but fear and pain were not in my parent-toolbox. 

I read something that struck me and almost reads as a child’s Bill of Rights: 

“Our purpose is to speak to what is best for our children—

their intelligence, their initiative, their sense of responsibility, their sense of humor, their ability to be sensitive to the needs of others.”  How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk”. By Faber and Mazlish

RESPECT

My country is teetering. I have witnessed the bully and the mis-treater. 

A new word I learned this morning —- chicanery—from Merriam Webster …. “deception by artful subterfuge or sophistry.” Cambridge Dictionary meaning…. “Clever, dishonest talk or behavior that is used to deceive people.”

Everyone prefers respect. Treated as intelligent. As someone who has initiative and a sense of responsibility. A citizen who has the power to be sensitive to the needs of others. 

I appreciate celebrating. To roast marshmallows, eat watermelon. Grill hotdogs and hamburgers. Maybe even eat red jello and cupcakes with our nation’s colors. 

I’d rather hear cheers to family gatherings and love. Triumph to social strength in newly established family customs. Hurrah to traditions of family. Families of every configuration. Who all deserve respect and are capable of establishing trust and respect amongst each other this holiday. Patience and practice.