Monday - Weathering Childhood Storms

Today on my drive into work, I was thinking about one of the most important lessons that I learned from my mother: just because you harbor something ugly inside of you doesn't mean it has to control you. She never said this too me directly; I realized the lesson as an adult looking back some 10 years after she was dead.

My kid brother brought it up one day when we had coffee together, but it was something I had been thinking about a lot myself.

"Remember when mom used to make us go to our rooms and we weren't allowed to come out until she stopped throwing things?" he said, "You realize that she was scared she would beat the crap out of us, don't you?"

( It's okay to throw pillows, but never your children )