DISAPPOINTMENT

  How do you deal with disappointment?  Do you pick yourself up somewhere in the midst of the freezer aisle as your arms heap with countless carbs and promises of sugary, greasy, cheesy redemption?  Do you browse the racks for that perfect bauble that will indeed sooth your sorrow and cause your neighbors eyes to bulge, because yes, you will make sure they see it.  Do you silently suffer as the world continues to whirl?
  How we as adults deal with disappointment is so different, though the feelings are the same, than the ways of a child.  We have trained ourselves with unhealthy tools to "get through", and sadly so many of our coping mechanisms perpetuate other unhealthy issues.
  Watching a child deal with disappointment is so refreshing.  The sting is visual; it's written in their eyes, on their brave little faces, and in body language that betrays their efforts to brush it off.  

  We've all been there, haven't we?

  The problem is, as a parent we want to keep our kids in a protective bubble as long as possible.  Or at least I do.  I don't want them to toughen up through experience, I don't want that tough shell to be built by lessons of life, or harsh words from a buddy on the playground.  I don't want to see innocence lost or sweet laughter fade.

  We can spin disappointment any which way we please, but at the end of the day, it's still just disappointment and it sucks.  We can prepare ourselves for the fall in every imaginable way, and once the ball has dropped, we can sooth and begin to heal.
  Tears are healthy.  Attitude is essential.
  Failures, if we can toss out that word, defines us so much more clearly than success.  To boast is easy, but to hold your head up and congratulate your neighbor, your friend, or your brother in the midst of your disappointment, is a marker of character.
   I'm preparing my family the best I can, and the only way I know how.  I know there will come a time when I will not be able to wipe the tears away, when this mother's arms will not be chosen.  I dread that day and my heart breaks into pieces just thinking about it, though I know full well it is part of the cycle.  I know I have a short amount of time to build character into my boys.  I'm vividly aware I have a lot of work to put into it, because I understand that disappointment at times are plenty.  I will cherish the moments I'm asked to dry the tears, and I will without shame show them my own.  I will do my best to model for them a character worth of emulating.
  
  If disappointment breeds character into my family, I'll boldly stand up and hold my arms out for all that comes our way.  The cool thing is, we will do it together, because we are a unit, and with each mountain or valley we are chosen to climb, we are not alone.