“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” – Albert Einstein

Everyone is our lives is a teacher to us. From children to parents and from school teachers to drivers who cut us off on the road - every single person in your life is a teacher; unless you want to learn how to experience yet more resentment in your life (see my December 2009 article on releasing resentment- click here).

I hope that the following 2 short stories bring you gifts.

Daddy, are you awake?

This morning I was having a great dream.  In it I was seeing a beautiful light approach me.

And then a voice in my dream asked: “Daddy, are you awake?” 

Being sleep befuddled and not realizing what was happening, I opened my eyes only to stare straight into Harry’s high intensity flashlight beam which was a mere few inches away from my face.  "AHHHHH!”  I screamed (in my head so as to not awaken my wife and baby). 

I then put my bleeding eyeballs back into my head, stumbled out of bed and in my haste to avoid stepping on our cat Peppy, I did what I told myself not to do: I stepped on her. 

At that point, in a truly frightened response to the fat ball of fury and fangs that hissed at me, I rammed my knee into a fiendishly sharp bed post. 

Then, with my knee in pain beyond effing belief, I bit my lip hard enough to draw a lot of blood because I did not want to scream a barrage of obscenities that would wake my wife and baby and swearing in front of your very impressionable four year old child is a bad thing.

Upon seeing me act and look incredibly funny, my adorable son jumped on me in boyhood glee because he thought it was a game. 

And, as my precious son gleefully jumped onto me causing my back to bend in a way it should not bend, he said: “Daddy, you look so funny and you sound just like Thomasy (the baby) when he’s pooping! ”

He said this while shining his flashlight-from-hell  straight into my eyeballs. 

At this point, in order to not wake my wife and baby, I frantically grabbed the evil flashlight from Harry while holding him.  I then quickly hobbled out to the hallway.

This is when my soon to be ex-son started thinking this was a really fun game.

"A game?" you ask.  "Why, what did your loving child do?" 

I'll tell what he did: he began kicking his legs in manic, boyhood glee.

And then he started giggling because of the very high pitched, dying noise that arose from the deepest part of my manly being that had just been kicked very, very hard (if you get my drift). 

We have two cats in our house. 

One of them throws up a huge load somewhere in the house every once in a while. 

But that’s not what awaited me in the hallway. 

No, what happened is that I was about halfway down the hallway when I realized that Harry had a very, very full #2 diaper.  You know, the kind that thoroughly leaks through everything?  Especially when you squish it as you hold your child with your arm under his bottom. 

It takes everything in me not to puke when I change my boy’s diapers.  So, the thought of my son's "recycled food" smearing itself all over my arm was enough to make me start throwing up in my mouth. 

That’s when I stepped in a huge load of cat vomit. 

Not wanting to wake up my wife and baby and also knowing that if I opened my mouth at this point I’d have twice as much mess to clean up, I made more odd sounds and faces that caused my son to giggle and kick even more happily. 

Have you ever tried telling a child to be quiet and stay still without actually opening your mouth?  It will only make them giggle and move around in your arms in a truly frenetic state. 

It was at this point that the mind numbing, weapons grade stench of Harry’s diaper hit my nose.  Have you ever heard the expression: “It’s a smell bad enough to knock a buzzard off a garbage-wagon at 50 yards?” 

By this time, Harry and I are in the downstairs room where, in my sleepy and traumatized state, I am very slowly trying to figure out what to do because I know I can’t set him and his disgustingly full diaper down on any furniture (and I have to wash my arm.)  

As I was standing there it suddenly hit me: Harry’s flashlight that is because you see, he'd taken it from me while I was attempting to safely and quietly make my way downstairs without "decorating the carpet".

Evidently I passed out from the shock, pain and stench because it seemed that it was some time later when, laying on the floor, I heard my son nervously ask: “Daddy, are you awake?”

That’s when Rachel and the baby woke up.

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The next story is an exact, unedited reprint (with full permission) from a client of mine. 

You Have The Power To Banish The Fear From Your Mind

“There comes a time when you realize that you don't have to fear anymore. That the previously imagined impossible is within reach.

The quiet calm you have searched for is indeed inside of you. It always was and will be, and will never vacate your soul. The time it lasts may not always be what you had always hoped, but it will return.

The key is to know this and brace yourself from any way our fear may manifest. To know that you have the power to banish the fear that may come from your very mind. To pay no heed to it's empty voice, or invisible images.

The path of change and discovery of one's self is not easy. To charge down the road of unknown fueled by faith can break a person. The challenge this road brings is easy to understand, yet, so hard to accept and practice.

Never, ever accept defeat. You will fall. You will feel broken. You will feel pain the physical body can not match. There will be days when all feels lost. Allow yourself to feel this, no matter how hard it may seem. Lay for a short time, and feel broken.

Lost in the thoughts of misery, you will find a certain voice in your soul that is laughing.

It is laughing at all the fearful thoughts and images.

The voice beckons you to get up and never, ever, accept defeat. Hold this voice, your very inner self, close to your heart during the path of life and you will never fail.”

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I have read and re-read my client’s email many times and am certain I shall learn more from his words in the coming years.  This is the beauty of our healing profession – the circle never stops.

Finally, to quote one of my teachers (“Daddy, are you awake?”) I suggest that if necessary, you wake up now if you are spiritually asleep in the blanket of resentment etc, because you may miss something truly wonderful (or step on a gift from a cat J! )

With laughter and smiles,

Devin

“Make this day different – don’t wait.”

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