My son Nicholas told his mom, “Mom, you never know. It might have been just a smile or a wave at someone that changed their whole day. Sometimes something as small as that makes a big difference. So, you never know what little thing might make a big impact.”
I know I don’t deserve the credit – I’ll have to give it to his mom. It was the first day of school and Nicholas learned that his best two friends, and his close third, were all together in the other fourth grade class.
Dad: How was the first day of school Nick?
Nick (very upset): All my friends are in the other class, it was terrible.
Dad: I’m sorry son, sometimes those things happen.
Nick (after a pause and shaking off his mood): I’ll guess I’ll have to make some new friends then.
When they already know, and you don’t have to tell them..
Nicholas walked up to me as I was sitting in the family room.
Dad, he said, I figured something out. What’s that son?
Time is the most important thing. When you think about it, time is all we have.
You know what else? What, I asked?
All this matter, everything around us, you know the things you hear about like dimensions and stuff, none of them could exist without time. Without time, nothing exists. Without time, we don’t exist.
Time is the most important thing.
And then he walked off.
As my wife was putting Nicholas to bed last night:
Mom, I know why I am here. I was sent here to teach Amanda through influence. Like a fire burning the trees influences the forest and teaches it to be healthy.
Now my wife and I have often spoke in private, or so we thought, about why Nicholas was sent to us. This the first time he has talked about it. My wife emerged from his room a little unnerved. “Like fire burning the trees influences the forest” she repeated.
Nicholas emerged from his room, and fighting with his sister, with a slightly bloodied nose. Now he likely did something, but nothing to merit a punch in the face. His only comment, “She really needs to work on her people skills.”
My favorite food is french fries (they are really good). French fries smell salty like the ocean breeze at twelve o’clock PM. They taste like a burst of grease, potatoes and salt all in one bite. I like french fries with soda. And for desert is a lavacake with nice vanilla ice cream on top of it. The feeling of french fries is like a very soft quilt made of potato cotton.
“I’m practicing being somebody. Because you can be a somebody or just someone. You know, someone who is just passing by.” – Nicholas
Funny how the subtlety of language – somebody versus someone – resonates at an early age. Then, I wonder what he meant by the last part.
So, I found my children playing. My son, with his sister’s urging, had started his own tax practice.
Now, even at this young age, they knew they needed a tag line and a way to differentiate their business. Interesting that we as adults just can’t seem to grasp this simple technique. We tell ourselves it isn’t necessary. Well, even with the second-grade spelling, we get the point.
