It is Sunday morning, with the trip drawing so near, I have a million thoughts traversing my mind. The one that seems to keep bill boarding into view is teaching our children accountability. There are consequences for all actions, whether immediate or delayed.... they will manifest themselves.
How many of us were taught to "look before we leap" and if told that, did anyone really explain that old saying in detail? I love the "think it through" adage. Think how many incidences in a child's life or our lives for that matter could be spared if we taught them to "think it through." In teaching them this; if we do something this way, this happens and if we do something that way, another outcome, helping them to make good choices that bring the highest good, rather then instant gratification should be our goal as parents.
The choices that we make follow us throughout our lives; how we treat each other, how we care for ourselves, all of them. There has to be a starting point for everything, and even if we were never taught, it is NEVER to late to learn.
Years ago a dear friend came to live with us in his final years, at 95 he had never had children, had always been the center of attention and had had a wife that waited on him hand and foot. Now here he was in a family with two kids at home with disabilities, three dogs and suddenly for the first time in his life he was learning to say please and thank you, he came to understand about respecting his fellows and animals as well, he learned not to swat at the kids, but most importantly he understood how it felt to walk in an other's shoes. He gained compassion and gratitude. If these things can be instilled in someone at 95 I believe in my heart of hearts they can be obtained and put into practice at any age!
Years ago a dear friend came to live with us in his final years, at 95 he had never had children, had always been the center of attention and had had a wife that waited on him hand and foot. Now here he was in a family with two kids at home with disabilities, three dogs and suddenly for the first time in his life he was learning to say please and thank you, he came to understand about respecting his fellows and animals as well, he learned not to swat at the kids, but most importantly he understood how it felt to walk in an other's shoes. He gained compassion and gratitude. If these things can be instilled in someone at 95 I believe in my heart of hearts they can be obtained and put into practice at any age!
The idea of going into Juvenile Halls with this flowing through my veins, has created a back drop for much of this journey. I remember sitting in a 10x6 cell in Juvenile Hall in Martinez in 1976 thinking I was going to totally loose it, and that my life was over, and I was in hell, looking back had someone told me I had just been given a reprieve, a chance to pause and re-evaluate my life, maybe, just maybe I might have listened. And better yet had I been taught about consequences maybe I would have never ended up there in the first place. Granted this is all forethought but, it helps me to define and create my projects when going into Juvenile Halls to speak and work with the young women and men whose lives will intersect with mine. Thinking all this through, has helped to build my strengths as well as re-define who I am, in the second half of my life.
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