Day 5: Mommy’s Pride

My son is 17. We’re friends on Facebook, but since he’s in his late teens I often cringe when I look at his updates. Oh, we’ve had the talk about what’s appropriate and what’s not. It’s nothing terribly bad – just typical teenage stuff, albeit a bit more vulgar than when I was growing up. I don’t say too much because I have a rare, unfiltered glimpse into his life. I certainly wasn’t this open with my mom. As you can probably imagine, I bite my tongue a lot.

Until today. I opened Facebook and there in my feed was this update from my son:

“you live your life once, live it with no regrets and do what makes you happy”

I fairly burst with pride. To have that kind of outlook at such a young age means that he’s going to have a jump on a happy, successful life.

We’ve talked often about how having a positive outlook enhances your life. I’m completely in agreement with statements like “if you think you’ll succeed or fail, you’re right”, and think that if you can make yourself sick, you can make yourself feel better. This whole 30 Days project is an exercise in mind control. By writing about something that made me happy every day, I have to find something to be happy about – every day. It hasn’t even been a week yet and I’m finding that I have so many things I want to write about that it’s hard to limit myself to just one (although I will say today’s was easy to choose). Anyway, Sean has seen how my practice of finding something positive in every situation, no matter how dire it may seem, has given me peace of mind, energy, and joy.

I remember a couple of years ago he was telling me about being in the huddle with his football team before a game. They were up against a tough opponent and bemoaning the fact that they were going to get their butts kicked. My son said “hey, if we think we’re going to lose, we will! Let’s be positive.”

Today, and every day, I am happy that my son already understands that his outlook is his choice, that his happiness is his choice, and that he chooses no regrets and to do what makes him happy. I have a feeling his one life is going to be pretty amazing.