The Student Becomes the Teacher...or Why I'm the Proudest Mommy Ever

Today, my heart is full...overflowing even. My son has made this mama so proud. More than normal toddler stuff, which always makes me proud and happy...he has blown me away.

Last year, on Mason's birthday, we started these "intentional acts of kindness" - doing one for each of our years on our birthday.  I saw another woman do it and, while I love doing these kinds of things throughout the year, the thought of spending your birthday focusing on others instead of yourself seemed like a brilliant way to reinforce the fact that we are here to serve a bigger purpose.

Mason had a blast with it, and has continued to remind me throughout this past year of that day and suggest doing more things. It's opened the door to some giving opportunities that I don't think we would have taken advantage of before. It's opened his eyes to the needs of others and caused him to intentionally look for chances to help and serve others. He's shown me in little ways over the past year how it's stuck with him and has been processing...but a few weeks ago, he astounded me at how much it had really made an impact in his sweet little heart.

I had come up with a list of ideas for his birthday acts this year. I was listing off my ideas one night after picking them up from daycare and was going to let him choose his 5 things. I had searched and searched, thought and thought, worked so hard to come up with a good list of 8 things that would work well for this day so that he could pick out the ones that he connected with. I picked out things we could fit into one afternoon or evening. Things that he would enjoy doing so that he would want to do more acts of service going forward. Things that fit my idea of how the day needed to look.

Then Mason called me out on all of it.

Why "counseling" isn't a four letter word...

I see a counselor.

Go ahead, judge me. I'll wait...

An Evolving Understanding of Friendship...

My best friend growing up was someone who I was in school with from 1st grade on. She was my other half. She was a part of my family and I felt comfortable just walking into her house unannounced. We went through friends, boyfriends, breakups, bad grades, and personal trouble together as a team. We traded more friendship necklaces and bracelets than I can count.

Then we went to college.  And we didn't talk nearly as often as we should have. We've stayed remotely connected and I even got to help her celebrate marrying her best friend last year, but I hate the fact that I didn't do more to stay connected to her after leaving our hometown. She has been a treasure in my life...still is, really. When we do find ourselves getting together for lunch, or texting, or even just posting on Facebook, we pick up right where we left off and I love that. She will always be my forever friend. She will always hold that sacred place in my heart.

My adult friends have meant something different, but are the same kind of special. A lot of people have come and gone. I've lost touch with them, they've moved away, or we've had our differences that have caused us to fall away from each other. But then there's the ones who are still there, part of my every day life, teaching me, pushing me, and holding me up when I need it.