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Fighting Back

The other day, the kids were having a no-good-terrible-horrible-day, of the Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day variety.  Their shoulders were hunched with the weight of their worries and Henry and Grace were crying tears filled with confusion and there was no salvaging the day; no making it better.  Sometimes you just need a redo.  So we quickly finished our disaster of a dinner and filled some sandwich bags with rocks from our backyard.  We drove down to the lake and threw our rocks and our worries into the water.

I don't know if it helped the kids, but it felt better than letting the sadness get us down.  Actually, it felt really good to stand up to the sadness.  It felt strong to stand with my kids and throw a little bit back at life.  Even though the wind was blowing, we were freezing, and the kids' cheeks were stained with tears - we still did it.  Maybe it didn't change a single thing about any of the chaos swirling around us, but it was far from futile.

I hope they'll remember that day when they're older and life is giving them a run for their money.  I hope they remember the day they felt defeated and together, we found the strength to stand up and fight back.  And I hope that they'll remember that all no-good-terrible-horrible days come to an end, just like every other day.





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