Because I know there are many wonderful, generous people around here—could I please get you to send some positive energy to stephanielynch? She has the flu and is also very depressed and lonely. She’s in Colorado.
Here at the TechnoZoo, we’re taking a break for stretching and food. The girls are eating in front of a TV, watching an episode of Sailor Moon from the DVD that was one of G’s presents. We’ve had an incredible few hours of communication as a family and I’m absolutely high on this energy.
In our most recent meeting with our family therapist, sambear and I were given a homework assignment of coming up with the “big picture” stuff that Sam needed in order to make the little daily tasks seem worthwhile. In our family, he tends to be a leadership kind of person, focusing on vision. I’m more of a management person, focusing on the details of Getting Shit Done. We talked about what we need, where the big picture comes from, etc.
This morning, we ended up talking about values—what they are, how they determine your goals and priorities, etc. That wasn’t really planned, it just happened. Then Sam asked everybody to split off for 15 minutes and figure out what values are really important to them as individuals, how those values interrelate, what they mean, etc. Then we spent 15 minutes goofing off, then came back together. We started with G, the youngest family member. Each person talked about his or her list, explained what each word meant to him or her, and then answered questions from other family members. realpochacco even did a Venn diagram. We took breaks, of course, to stretch and so on. It was a really good relating time, and I feel much closer to everyone now.
After this break, we’re going to try to formulate a family mission statement. No, really—not some piece of stupid corporate puffery designed to look good in an annual report. More of the Stephen Covey Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families thing. Then we work down to the details, of course.
I’m sorta wondering about making this a family tradition—an annual check-in on where we are, what’s important, and whether or not we’re really on track with how we’re living in relation to our values.
