In the sunshine of life

I usually am not an impulsive person, but this wonderful weekend in Phoenix may make me a bit more reflective about that as well.

Thank goodness Henry turned five and wanted the biggest birthday ever. Thank goodness for Bob needing to go to CA anyway. Thank goodness for Bob recognizing my need to see my wonderful grandchildren ( and parents). Thank goodness, yes really, for 100 degree dry heat and amazing sunshine. Thank goodness for my two sons and their loving thoughtfulness and my two daughters for sharing this time with me. And again, thank goodness every moment for my husband, who through hard, persevering tenacious, work in partnership with me, created all that made this Mother's Day weekend filled with amazing moments of laughter, relaxation and love.

Yesterday I heard a story, perhaps it will be familiar to some...A young child is struggling with moments of anger and angry words. The child's father gives them a hammer and bag of nails and takes them out to a fence behind their house. He tells the child to put a nail in the fence every time they are angry, or yelling or screaming...the first  the child hammers 37 nails into the fence. As time passes, however fewer and fewer nails are hammered in each day until at last, a day comes when the child does not need to hammer even one nail into the fence. The father is so pleased and proud of the child, and now explains that for everyday they show no anger or hurtful behavior, they need to remove a nail. Days move forward and finally all the nails are removed. The child runs to share this accomplishment and again the father is pleased. He takes the child 's hand and together they go to look at the fence. "I am very proud of you and the lessons you have learned, yet I have one more lesson to share. Do you see the nail holes in the fence? It is not the same as when you first began this journey and it will never be the same again. Just as if you stabbed a person and were sorry - you have still wounded them and they will forever carry that scar. You must choose your actions and words carefully because once we have acted in anger, no matter how sorry we may be, the scar of our actions remains forever."

In our days that are so hurried, we can easily forget to be so thoughtful of friend and stranger alike - I hope to keep the hammer and nails in the toolbox and use them for building, not breaking.