The clock is ticking. Until the kids wake up. Until the sun rises. Until the bad news comes. Until the back aches. Until the toe hurts. Until the sun sets. Until the bell tolls. Until you wake up. Until the alarm rings. Until the moment the moment walks away and doesn’t come back. Pencils down. …
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Speaking different languages
We have a toy robot that operates in different languages. I pressed the language button, not knowing what it did, and it started speaking Japanese instead of English. It also speaks French, Spanish, and German. Sometimes it’s obvious when someone starts speaking a different language to you, and sometimes, it’s not. Legalese looks a lot …
Create
Tonight I saw a handful of fireworks in my neighborhood from my backyard but my 4-year-old son didn’t come outside in time to see them in time. He was disappointed, then went inside and said, “I’m just going to draw some so we can see some more.” It reminded me of a story that Sir …
Twist and shout
My 2-year-old daughter knows to twist a door knob but she doesn’t know that she needs to push or pull after that in order to open it. She twists and shouts. When you don’t know how things work, the world is confusing and frustrating. What mysteries do you need to figure out?
Fall down and keep growing
There’s a tree on a trail that I like to run that is sideways. It fell over. I assumed it was dead until my friend pointed out that all the leaves were green and it was still growing. Some of its roots were still in the ground even though some dead roots were now pointing …
Be okay with temporary uncertainty
Life will be easier if you can become comfortable with temporary uncertainty. You may not know what’s going to happen later today, or tomorrow or a week from now, but taking a long enough view, many things are temporary and it’s easier to be confident that they will pass and we’ll make it to the …
The halfway point
My New Year’s resolution this year was to start a blog and write a post everyday for a year. There have been several times in the past 6 months when I questioned whether it was worth it, but like many things, it feels easier to finish once you reach the halfway point. “That wasn’t so …
Part owl
My 4-year-old son saw a video of how a great horned owl could turn its head an astonishing, superhuman 270º. Then my son turned his head on his neck about 180º and said to me, “Look, I can do part of that.” That seems like a better thing to say than, “I can’t do that.” …
Think of others
One time we were all in the car with my grandparents driving and for some reason they stopped in the middle of the road. A few seconds passed and then all at the same time, my mother, my sister, and I all turned around to see if we were blocking a car behind us, who …
Things I l Learned from My Father (#7): Don’t be racist
The most important things I learned from my father I probably didn’t even notice. My father never told me, “Don’t be racist,” but he taught that to me because I always saw him treat everyone with the same respect regardless of their race. He taught me that you can be proudly Chinese and friends with …
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