A penthouse in the basement

Greetings y'all :

Ok folk we hit the wall last night , figuratively speaking . I'll admit I accelerated it slightly but sometimes ya gotta crash and burn and find that moment when only complete sobbing will help . Gotta hit the bottom to find the way out.

Does that mean life is perfect ? Uhm last I checked I live in reality and not a Disney movie so no life is not perfect but we are working hard. Many tears were shed last night. We gained som good insights as well. My little heart breaks for my big boy. He's learning to face adversity, a skill lost on many.

Today he woke up and his first words were "I Love you daddy , go back to sleep for a few minutes. You deserve it" Brilliant !! I figured he deserved pancakes after that. We also chose to walk to school. It seems I've driven 6,300 miles this last year. We are striving to bring that to under 5,000 next year.

It was brought to my attention today that my son is self reliant ( ok schools like to oppositional and defiant ) it was noted that Junior Mint responds well to non verbal cues. I asked that person to pass the word , getting into tug of wars with my son makes things worse. Use looks , hand gestures I've suggested and reasoning . He understands things and matches tone. If he's approached confrontationally and with negatives hell react accordingly.

This afternoon we stopped at Dunkin Donuts after the grocer. Junior Mint was given one dollar to spend at will. He looked over the selection carefully. After about three minutes he finally spoke up and said " May I have one glazed donut please ? Thank you" . He completed the transaction, sat down, opened the bag and saw two donuts. He was thrilled! " hold up daddy , if I'm kind and respectful then nice things happen to me" I was so proud of him. Sure I teach him that, I model it , he's seen it , but it for it to happen to him following the rough patch we've had and for it to occur in the real world is priceless. Can't teach that stuff. Ya gotta live it ! Ya gotta love it !

I guess I let my boy, my friends and my self down this week when I failed to remember life's inherent impermance.

" realizing the doctrine of dependent-arising, the wise do not partake of extreme views." Buddha

Thanks for reading again today folks. It's reading and snuggle time for the Robinson Boys