**THROWBACK POST**
June 3 2012:
Different can be VERY uncomfortable and isolating – and then …… those around us learn from us that Different iz Good and Different is Happy – Dance to Your Passion Y’all – Now matter how Different. Compassion and Acceptance will take us a long way . . . Happy Sunday Y’all!
February 29 2020
When Thomas and Lillian were younger, this was a much discussed topic in our house. They still tell me I’m weird and crazy. I tell them, “Thanks for noticing.” 😜🤣
“My kids are starting to notice I’m a little different from the other dads. ‘Why don’t you have a straight job like everyone else?’ they asked me the other day.
I told them this story:
In the forest, there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. Every day, the straight tree would say to the crooked tree, ‘Look at me…I’m tall, and I’m straight, and I’m handsome. Look at you…you’re all crooked and bent over. No one wants to look at you.’ And they grew up in that forest together. And then one day the loggers came, and they saw the crooked tree and the straight tree, and they said, ‘Just cut the straight trees and leave the rest.’So the loggers turned all the straight trees into lumber and toothpicks and paper. And the crooked tree is still there, growing stronger and stranger every day.” Tom Waits
November 4 2018:
Still combing through the years of drafts saved on my blog! At least I’m in 2014 now! Hahaha!
(Thomas at Galena Creek Camp 2014)
The Beauty of All Individual Personalities and Souls
**THROWBACK POST**
February 19 2014:
When I picked up Thomas from school recently, he told me he has been asking all of his classmates whether or not they like LEGOS. Only one or two say they do and the others tell him they don’t and they like playing the Wii. He said it makes him feel bad that no one else likes them.
I explained to him that I’ve had a similar experience with feeling bad when others don’t like or feel the same way about something I like. BUT, I have learned that I am choosing to feel this way … And I can choose not to feel this way also.
He said, “That’s so hard, though”. I told him I completely understand and it takes lots and lots of practice to choose not to let it bother you. I said this may help …
**THROWBACK POST**
November 18 2013:
The other day as I was driving the kids to school, Thomas asked me why some of the kids in his class don’t like certain people because they talk different (are of a different nationality). He said that he likes them. It doesn’t matter to him that they talk differently.
I said I couldn’t explain why and how sad that they feel this way. Then we chatted about our motto .. Different iz Good … We don’t dislike others due to the way they talk, look, dress, smell, or walk. We are all the same. We can certainly choose not to be around a particular person due to their behaviors or attitudes, yet, we can choose to do this silently or with very little words.
This is an up close and personal lesson for me as I know there are classmates that steer clear of Lillian due to her mannerisms and speech difficulties. I truly love the little reminders about life that I get from Thomas by way of questions he asks and his life experiences.
