The best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Parent the Child you Have” is a slogan used in parenting but has application for all aspects of life. To accept what is, not what we hoped for. Our distress gets turned up when
- We want what we do not have, and
- We have no agency over changing it.
Radially accept we must. “Parent the Child you Have” operationalizes self-compassion. It means to accept:
- The colleague who doesn’t honor agreements, after multiple crucial conversations
- Traffic, potholes, unreliable public transport
- Covid Delta resurgence
- Those that don’t say what they mean
- Spam phone calls/texts
- The tissue that went thru the washer
- The friend who only offers false optimism when I am telling them something hard.
There is an ever-expanding universe of things we are wholly powerless over. “Parent the Child you Have” is an edgy shorthand to want what you have. Or change your relationship to it.
We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.
―Joseph Campbell
Wellbeing Ideas
Two Podcast interviews on Choosing Wellness, Eileen’s recently published book
Good Morning Washington Interview on Choosing Wellness
The NP Business Matters Podcast
Journal Prompts for People Pleasers
How to clean dirty white sneakers
I just did this with a mud soaked sneaker– and it was miraculous- using toothpaste and stain remover. Keep your feet happy
Tiny purchases that disproportionally improve one’s life–here is a fun list
Stay Well!
