Yesterday, I ran my favorite loop with one of my daughters
and her baby son who came along for the ride in a jogging stroller. Running is one of the things that I enjoy
doing with her. We made that connection
now almost fourteen years ago. She was
running on the high school cross country team at the time. I needed to instill some exercise into my
schedule. What could this non-athlete
do? Kat encouraged me by setting my
watch to beep every two minutes. I would
jog for two minutes, and walk two minutes, and then jog again. It wasn’t much. But it caught hold.
We forged a connection – something we could do together –
and we are still running after all
these years.
If you are a parent, or a grandparent, or you are just
trying to connect with someone to mentor, find something, find a connection, a mutual interest that you can build
on. As our girls were growing up, often
that “something” changed from year to year as they grew. But it is a precious place. And it doesn’t just happen or emerge. It is an intentional
bonding. I took a risk with many
activities, from running to cooking to writing this blog. Once I even joined a choir to make that
connection, fearful that someone would realize I could not really sing.
My husband and I even read many of the same books that our
girls were assigned in school or reading on their own. That mutual activity introduced us to new
authors, increased our literary knowledge, provided a great source of conversation, and allowed us to be more connected
with what they were thinking about or learning in school.
Through the years, all those connections, those activities
and adventures, shared experiences and talks along the way, those became the
building blocks of strong abiding relationships. When (not
if), you go through shaky times in those relationships, you still have
something to hold onto, until the storm passes.
And in good times, well, all the better.
It’s never too late.
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