Great Example of Followthrough

I would not normally speak about personal stuff, but this is one of those lessons worth sharing.

Our son came to us and said that the day after Veterans Day last week he was going to have a substitute. His class was warned by the teacher that it was a reviled sub that he had mentioned to us before.

He was asking not to go to school and was on the verge of a breakdown over having to deal with this woman.

To get him over the hump, I said that I would email the principal the night before and let her know that I would be coming to see my son over lunch and that she needed to check into this issue for my son.

To her credit, the principal was WAITING for my son and asked him about his concern for not coming to school because of the sub.

He answered her questions and she reassured him that it would not be an issue. The rest of the day was spent with a great sub. (I know because I did meet her at lunch when I did get to go see him)

Talk about response time! Mind you, the principal could have gotten my email the night before, but odds are better she only checked it in the morning before my son got to school. He was fairly sure that the principal was there in time to get rid of the original sub because the new one was only arriving when he got there.

Needless to say, the principal got a note from me and a thank you note from my son.

Check out my appearance on the The Toddcast Podcast

Click and watch the podcast recording of my appearance on the Toddcast Podcast Such a fun time!

New Life

It's weird, sad and slightly freeing. I've been headed towards a completely different life for a lot longer than I even knew. It took me a while to catch up to realize it was happening. Thankfully, I was cognizant enough to see it finally and mostly ready for it. It's amazing when you have the rug completely pulled out from underneath you. The adjustments are jarring. I made mistakes, but like most I learned from them, adapted, and tried my best to do better. The reason you see that truck next to a storage place? That's the sum of my life right now. Never take for granted that you will work hard for something or someone, and it will end up meaning very little. You are guaranteed nothing, owed nothing, promised nothing. Anything and everything can be taken away in a heartbeat. I wrote this to my kids a while back: I tried to be the best father I could be based on what I knew when I knew it and how I could. One of the lessons for your life needs to be: you need to b

Guiding Light

Most folk who know me, know I lost my father when I was 14 years old. However, before he passed, he shared a timeless secret with me—a practice that would shape my life in ways I could never have imagined. He didn't teach me meditation in the traditional sense, with incense and crossed legs. Instead, he showed me how to meditate by gazing at a lone light on the ceiling. When I was very young, I had night terrors that would wake me in the middle of the night. I'm sure it was terribly frustrating to calm a child from that. But my father had the way. I never understood how he came to the practice. But over the years, I've come to understand that my father's unique approach to meditation was, in fact, a profound lesson in mindfulness and presence. In a nearly pitch black room, he would tell me to find a speck of light, not unlike a star. Then focus. He would say, "Just watch the light, like you're watching a story unfold. Be the observer, not the thinker." I

Todd Lyden

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