Yet Another Funeral

I attended a funeral yesterday.  I don't have much to say about it... all I have to say is that I saw genuine emotion in action, and that was cool.  We were fortunate to hear from some very talented speakers and musicians. In the end, though, it was the tenderness in people's eyes and voices that made it such a soulful experience.

I Was Trusted To Help

It's not fun to be roused out of bed by the phone. And it's not fun to see someone you love hurting from pain and frustration. What is awe-inspiring is to be called at a late hour and be invited to see someone who needs aid... because that means that they think you are capable of providing at least some bit of help and comfort. It's touching, and more than a little humbling.

I hope I helped enough to honor their trust.

a great meeting with caring people

The other day, we had a great conference with some school teachers and administrators. It was about 50 intense minutes with 8 adults. I'll highlight 5 seconds of it as an example of why it was great.

We were mostly done, and the principal (Mrs. White) started talking straight at our daughter. She got direct, talking a bit sternly about what she expected. At one point, Mrs. White told our girl how she was sixth in some ranking in her class. Later, Mrs. White asked her, "Do you know why I mentioned your ranking?" I understood; she mentioned it because it showed how our girl was very capable, and able to do great work if she would apply herself. However, that's not how she took it; she said something about getting to the top place, meaning she felt like she was expected to improve from sixth to first.

Mrs. White contintued, not catching that she had misunderstood. So our Vice-Principal Mrs. Fletcher said something to our girl, correcting the misunderstanding. At this point, Mrs. White caught on to the confusion, and she attempted to fix it as she continued. All of this was done in a spirit of cooperation, with attitudes that showed respect even if someone needed correction.

Much more went on in the meeting, with many individual perspectives and even somewhat contrary opinions. In fact, there were times that someone was cut off or their point was dismissed because it didn't help with our goal. But everyone in the room was focused on a constructive outcome. Although I don't think it was perfect for anyone, I do believe everyone could feel the care and concern for our girl, and everyone showed true respect for one another throughout. It gave me pause afterward. It's good to be a part of that kind of thing.

What a great meeting.

Helping parents and kids with "Scream Free" Parenting

I rarely listen to popular music stations for long, but this morning I was hooked by 97.1 at 8:30 because they had Hal Runkel on, who runs "Scream Free Parenting". I've never heard of it before, and he was fascinating: he talked about issues with a high-school relationship class, and then he took calls and answered emails and talked with the hosts. I found myself still listening when he signed off at 9. (You can hear it in their podcast for this morning; you'll want to skip halfway through the segment for the start of the interview.)

Now there's work that really makes a difference in people's lives! For example, they read an email from a previous caller from a few weeks ago who says that homework is going so much better with her teenage daughter now. He talked about the issues in specific, and he did it very clearly such that I could relate and recall things that I should be doing better in my own life. As host "Danger Boy" (?) said, we've got to be reminded about these things hundreds of times, just like our children.

Very inspiring.