She couldn’t stop smiling and giggling while we talked about her school day.
She just kept staring at my face and smiling and giggling in her best way.
Then, finally, she stopped her story mid-thought; and grabbed my face and pushed her cheek against mine.
#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for the few hours between when I shave and when my face gets prickly again.
And … for this girl. My magic. This is a rotating week where she’s home by 3. Which means my hugs start in earnest and 3:01. The best part of this whole darned world happening as it is, is stuff like this.
I’m a fan of GNN (check it out, we can all use good news). As a person who’s worked through some challenges with my own eyes (more are on the way) this one made my day.
#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for science, research and development, and people attacking all things that stunt and put unnecessary limits on the human condition.
At 78, this man was able to see his family again. It’s rare that things so powerful get taken away from you so absolutely, only to return.
#iamgrateful and #iamthankful that this man, at some point, uttered “I’ve lost my ability to see, forever”, only to find himself seeing again.
Thanks to everyone who reached out. It was kind and also a little funny. Because it wasn’t a huge deal but I felt I owed it to myself to write it out.
I shared this because I committed to getting back to writing and sharing things
#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for and I aso wanted to acknowledge that there are days where it can be hard, or feel hard, in specific moments.
You can’t win every day and moment. Yesterday I could have been more honest with myself about it. I’d prided myself on my approach with the kids for the few weeks of 2021 we had. I was even proud of myself for the lengths I went to yesterday morning.
But I was happiest about the moment I realized I had to take space and let go. I sat in a recliner upstairs for a few minutes. Got a hug from my wife Priya KC Bhatt who knows how hard I am on myself for these though, fewer and farther between.
Because only when I acknowledged it could I fully go back, talk to the kids about it, apologize for my behavior so they would learn to do the same for their own.
And they did. When they woke up from their naps (they were just tired, I knew it, and I should have forced a nap) they keep with the most adorable acknowledgements of their own. That’s good stuff.
But I’m also writing it because I want it to follow me and remind me. More than anything I want to remember how I could have done better and then, I want to do better and model better.
Hopefully that’s the takeaway for the small few of you who read this.
From the moment the kids struggled to go to bed last night I had prepared myself for a tough morning.
As a parent, you know the delicate interdependency of moments. This staying up late moment is a short term concession that will make sleepytime tougher, likely make them tired in the morning, and make anything through at least lunch a battle.
So I prepared for it. Went to bed early. Woke up before them. Took all my breaths this AM. Had breakfast stuff ready to go.
All before they woke.
And I still screwed it up. I tried to cut through their behavior 15 different ways but by 11am (geez, just thinking of that short fuse is a level of guilt I won’t shake for a while) I had lost it. Separating them. Reading to them. Playing with them. Making them change their clothes again to reset the day.
In the 3 minutes between finishing a chapter in The Tale or Despereaux and starting to unpack a volcano gift the kids devolved into the worst side of Cobra Kai and I snapped. At a booming level that I’m sure is still bouncing around in their skulls.
I was overconfident today. There’s a lot going on and I wasn’t kind enough or honest enough with myself to give myself space. To let them hop on the TV. Or do their iPads when nothing else was working.
They didn’t need the space. Maybe I did?So here we stand. It’s 1pm. And I’ve conceded the day.
#iamgrateful and #iamthankful … that tomorrow is a new day. Sometimes, the best part about increments of time is knowing that the increment you’re in, is soon over and permanently behind you.
For all our complaints about time moving relentlessly forward, it’s days like today that I can’t help but be thankful.
4 counts in
7 counts hold
8 counts out
All we can do is acknowledge it, give ourselves space, and get better.
Update: I shared this because I know we’ve all been there. And it felt right to share. Sometimes, even with our kids, the folks we love the most, the best thing is space. Space that acknowledges right now they just don’t want to hear it, and space that acknowledges right now, we just don’t want to say it.
I’m good. At 1230 I embraced the day. Just letting it unfold and doing less to impose myself on it and more to take the instructions it (and they) give me.
Simple Saturday AMs. When Jaanu makes it clear he wants to snuggle. Where. When. How long.
I got advice before Anaiya was born that success in parenting, especially as your kids are younger, is embracing their schedule and cadence when you can. Riding their waves.
Sometimes those waves are turbulent. Sometimes they’re powerful and they carry you on your own worst days.
Sometimes, on days like today, they’re just magical and comforting.
It’s poetry, that January 20th is The International Day of Acceptance.
Today.
Symbolically a day of major change and transition.
Starts as first, a day of acceptance. The day was defined for the world to accept disability. To honor those who face disabilities in any form, and a day for those individuals to receive that embrace from the world.
Today though, acceptance takes on an even broader definition. Acceptance symbolically applied maybe to all of us in the US.Of what happened.Of where we are.Of what we need to do and be from today on.
You can’t progress until you first acknowledge and accept.
I stepped away from Facebook for a while; two years ago I took my friends on FB down from I think a couple thousand (+) to 7. Just family. I almost went deleted it all together but the photos…ahhh, the photos and memories were the best part of it.
When I started coming back online, I promised myself I’d make Facebook the place I wanted it to be. I was going to do more to get back to my #iamgrateful and #iamthankful posts. I got a lot of negativity about these posts, but I also realized through DMs and messages how many people kind of looked forward to them. So I wanted to make this a place that brought me happiness and positive energy (I needed that in spades, especially last year, as I think many of us did).
There are a lot of ways I’ve used FB to get there; but one of the most powerful has been jumping into the comment section of really heated posts and trying to see if I could find common ground with people. And it’s been amazing.
Today was that example; where I saw a woman comment on Joe BIden’s inauguration, and go down a path of slamming him for wanting to defund police.
The discussion we had in the comments was super positive. Even though around us, people were slamming her (and even laughing at me) for how we shared our perspectives.
What was awesome though, was where we ended. Giving each other just a little sprinkle of positivity and hope. That we can find common ground, even the smallest slivers.
When you put enough of those slivers together, you get steps, then stairs, and then, maybe, one day, bridges.
#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for some of the people I’ve met. Who have helped me get past the beliefs they have and into the reasons why. I am hopeful. And of all I know, I know one thing for sure: hate has never changed a mind.
On the day between MLK Day and Inauguration Day, I found hope in what many believe to be the most disappointing part of our virtual world; the comment section.
I found hope, and sometimes even, I’ve found friendship there.
We did nails this weekend. Look, Anaiya will do her nails 4 times a day if she could. And Priya KC Bhatt would kindly support her happiness as she always does. But yesterday, we all did nails.
Jaanu did his thumbs, to let a friend know we’re here and we’re standing alongside you, with our blue finger nails thumbs up.
And me, well Anaiya painted my middle fingers so I could give that tumor directions on precisely where it could go.
#iamgrateful and #iamthankful that even with physical time and space between us, this ridiculous platform gives us the ability to let you know, we’re thinking of you.
From our head and hearts all the way down to our itty bitty fingernails.
L
F
G
Rachael Wells. It ain’t supershero glitter but we love blue. LFGPS: Shout out Ekata Doshi for the timely nail polish shipment.
I believe you’d agree it was put to even better use than you’d have imagined.
Because it wasn’t a huge deal but I felt I owed it to myself to write it out.
Suneet Bhatt 
FINDING HOPE AND FRIENDSHIP IN COMMENTS or HATE HAS NEVER CHANGED A MIND
I stepped away from Facebook for a while; two years ago I took my friends on FB down from I think a couple thousand (+) to 7. Just family. I almost went deleted it all together but the photos…ahhh, the photos and memories were the best part of it.
When I started coming back online, I promised myself I’d make Facebook the place I wanted it to be. I was going to do more to get back to my #iamgrateful and #iamthankful posts. I got a lot of negativity about these posts, but I also realized through DMs and messages how many people kind of looked forward to them. So I wanted to make this a place that brought me happiness and positive energy (I needed that in spades, especially last year, as I think many of us did).
There are a lot of ways I’ve used FB to get there; but one of the most powerful has been jumping into the comment section of really heated posts and trying to see if I could find common ground with people. And it’s been amazing.
Today was that example; where I saw a woman comment on Joe BIden’s inauguration, and go down a path of slamming him for wanting to defund police.
The discussion we had in the comments was super positive. Even though around us, people were slamming her (and even laughing at me) for how we shared our perspectives.
What was awesome though, was where we ended. Giving each other just a little sprinkle of positivity and hope. That we can find common ground, even the smallest slivers.
When you put enough of those slivers together, you get steps, then stairs, and then, maybe, one day, bridges.
#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for some of the people I’ve met. Who have helped me get past the beliefs they have and into the reasons why. I am hopeful. And of all I know, I know one thing for sure: hate has never changed a mind.
On the day between MLK Day and Inauguration Day, I found hope in what many believe to be the most disappointing part of our virtual world; the comment section.
I found hope, and sometimes even, I’ve found friendship there.
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Tagged as CHANGEOFMIND, COMMENTS, friendship, HATE, kindness, love