The,Meeting,came,out,the,blue. family The Meeting
A lot of women avoid wearing nice clothes when they getpregnant because they believe that they look fat or ugly. You know that theresnothing more beautiful than a pregnant woman glowing and smiling, so youshouldnt hide your body during p Raising a family can be challenging and stressful at times. However, the common goals and emotional, financial, and physical investments made can be a common bond between husband and wife. One that compliments their marriage relationship.Of
It came out of the blue...something we couldn't have anticipated...Sure, I like to think thatI truly know my family, that I have their "moves" down to a scienceand, given that I'm a pretty intuitive fellow, I even have a leg up on what'scoming down the pike.Personally, I've beenknown to pull a spontaneous ritual out of thin air, but I never suspected thatthe apple who is my son would have fallen so very close to the tree that Iam...It happened about a monthand a half ago. Danielle, Cai and I were sitting at the dinner tablejoking, munching and carrying on with our daily reports. Cai had stood upand sat down a dozen or so times already. It was shaping up to bea normal evening at home - until...Cai looked up from hiscookie crumb-strewn place and announced, "We have to have a familymeeting."Huh?"We have to have afamily meeting tonight. We can tell each other how our day and weekand year are going..."First thought: "Isn'tthis kid a bit young to be bobbing for apples in the organizationaldevelopment-Deep Democracy barrel?"...mischievouskangaroos halfway around the globe... A few weeks ago, I returnedfrom a gathering of fellow Coaches Training Institute course leaders. Without going into too much detail, I walked away from that experience feelingas if each teeny, tiny strand of my DNA had been elasticized, stretched,strummed and otherwise re-ordered. I had listened to lessons on QuantumPhysics, Sentient Reality, local and non-local energetic events, and the notionof being dreamed into various states of existence by mischievous kangarooshalfway around the globe. Evidently, one of those pesky marsupials haddecided it was time to shake things up in our neck of the woods, andmy poor son was possessed...Second thought: "Pure,unbridled genius! That's my Boy!"Whether or notthe notion had been channeled through wayward 'roos, Danielle and I agreedthat the family meeting was a pretty cool idea. After mopping up in thekitchen, we made our way into our living room (family room..?) for ourfirst-ever family meeting.Cai took a blanket of anearby chair and placed it - just so - on the living room floor. Isuggested we locate a "talking stick" and within a few minutes, wewere seated on the blanket sharing one of the finest family moments we'd hadtogether in months."Hesits," I reasoned, "all day at school."While I had played with theconcept of family meetings, I never took the idea too seriously. Ifigured Cai - at the tender age of seven - was too young, and would probably bebored with anything that required him to sit still for more than a minute ortwo. "He sits," I reasoned, "all day at school..."What I failed to factor inwas that when an idea comes from him, the details have a way of workingthemselves out without much influence, finesse, or manipulation on mypart. (C'mon, I'm human... When my brainy ideas and enlightenedself-interest come to a crossroads, I can manipulate with the best of 'em...)When I stop and reallylook, the desire for gathering as a family has been with us for awhile. We adults in the household had found sophisticated ways ofdancing around it. Cai had the wisdom to give voice to that desire,unfettered by notions of judgment, rejection or "propertiming." To him, the moment had come.We've had three or fourfamily meetings so far. When we missed our usual evening a week or soago, it was Cai who, sitting on his bed, announced, "We didn't haveour family meeting tonight!" His sense of longing waspalpable. Indeed, something sacred had been skipped over -something he had been instrumental in creating...As I sit cross-legged onour red blanket, look into the eyes of my small family and listen to theirvoices, I can't help but be moved. This way of being with one anotherfeels both new and ancient at the same time. The conversation on theblanket is different - somehow more connected, more real, more evenlypaced. On the blanket in our living room, we stop -breaking the silence to share our truths - to honor, acknowledge andappreciate one another. For a few precious moments, the rest of theworld slows down, too."Ah," I think,"So this is what they mean by 'family room...'"Then it hits me:"Smart kid..."
The,Meeting,came,out,the,blue.