Friday Thoughts – Be There.

“Daddy, I’m scared and can’t sleep,”?my son said at my bedside as he came into my room and woke me.

"What's going on, buddy?” I said. “Do you need me to take you back to your room?”

“Yes, please,”?he replied timidly.

As I walked him to his room and then me back to my room and got back into my bed, I couldn’t sleep.?His waking and coming into my room to get me triggered a memory.

I was about his age and my parents had been divorced for six years or so. On one of my father's evenings with us, he returned us to our house, where my sister and I shared a room. It had a T-shaped bunkbed, and I was on the top bunk.?I asked my dad to rub my back to help me fall asleep, which he accommodated.?I remember falling asleep and knowing that when I woke that next morning, he would not be there.

But I am. I will be here when my son wakes up.

I am there.?

I am here.??

We all make choices.

And my kids know that I will always choose to be there for them (maybe a bit too much).

Now, I have no idea how those feelings and experiences as a young man helped shape who I am today, but I am sure not all good.

That said, I am who I am because of those experiences and those feelings.?Good and bad, we are who we are because not just the totality of experiences, but how we choose to react to them.

It’s so important to be aware of those little things and to try and understand them.?To get clear in a way that allows one to embrace the good and cut out the “less than ideal.”

Resilience is something learned, not taught.?

All we can be is the best role models we can with the tools we have.??

From there, who knows?

Just hope for the best and always be there when they wake up.

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