It's Not The Honors And The Prizes

Part Of The Problem With The Word 'disabilities' Is That It Immediately Suggests An Inability To See Or Hear Or Walk Or Do Other Things That Many Of Us Take For Granted. But What Of People Who Can't Feel? Or Talk About Their Feelings? Or Manage Their Feelings In Constructive Ways? What Of People Who Aren't Able To Form Close And Strong Relationships? And People Who Cannot Find Fulfillment In Their Lives, Or Those Who Have Lost Hope, Who Live In Disappointment And Bitterness And Find In Life No Joy, No Love? These, It Seems To Me, Are The Real Disabilities.

When Our Children See Us Expressing Our Emotions, They Can Learn That Their Own Feelings Are Natural And Permissible, Can Be Expressed, And Can Be Talked About. That's An Important Thing For Our Children To Learn.

As Different As We Are From One Another, As Unique As Each One Of Us Is, We Are Much More The Same Than We Are Different. That May Be The Most Essential Message Of All, As We Help Our Children Grow Toward Being Caring, Compassionate, And Charitable Adults.

My Hunch Is That If We Allow Ourselves To Give Who We Really Are To The Children In Our Care, We Will In Some Way Inspire Cartwheels In Their Hearts.

The Very Best Reason Parents Are So Special . . . Is Because We Are The Holders Of A Priceless Gift, A Gift We Received From Countless Generations We Never Knew, A Gift That Only We Now Possess And Only We Can Give To Our Children. That Unique Gift, Of Course, Is The Gift Of Ourselves. Whatever We Can Do To Give That Gift, And To Help Others Receive It, Is Worth The Challenge Of All Our Human Endeavor.