Parenting Tips in Three Parts

This is so funny
because it’s not funny at all
and that’s the root of all great humor!

We (and by “We” I mean humans)
are going to get what want.

Think.

You no longer
have to
survive.

At least no one
reading this
has to
survive.

Think.

How amazing…
we have come so far
as humans
as to not have to worry
about survival.

Every second
every minute
every hour
of human existence
until what…?
100 years ago?
200 years ago?

200 years ago
if you weren’t sowing fields
right now
you wouldn’t eat
and no one would care
beyond using your
situation to motivate
their family to survive
better than yours.

And now
we have created
the space to
think
feel
imagine
grow
explore.

We don’t have to survive
any more.

For now.

Part 2

There are no secrets
great men and woman
have come before
and pioneered
and laid pathways
to the heart and soul
they are clearly marked.

Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.

Joeseph Campbell

And yet
we turn back
we turn away
we refuse
we point out fingers
we explain
we implore
we demand
we kill
we force
we reject
we proclaim
we know
we shame

In this new world
in this new imagination
in this new potential
we turn
and run
like scared children
screaming
at the dark
when all that’s happened
is that the sun has gone down
and nature has
continued to turn her work.

Like children
we demand it
to be worse
than it is
we demand
that all is lost
we demand
that the pain
is eternal
and separate
from our nature
and from
our magnificence.

We demand
that our stunned
parents believe us
we demand
that all is lost.

We are behaving like
entitled children.

Part 3

What kind of parent
do you want to be?

Because it’s your choice.
You’re making it now.
You can change it.
But the longer you wait
the more pain there will be
and it is possible,
if you want to be the most loving parent
that you will be killed
by your children
and perhaps
then
they
will
see
themselves.

The pain of good parenting
is the hardest pain
the deepest pain
you must sacrifice
everything
and become yourself.

What have you sacrificed?