Draw In A New Balloon

I’ve spent a lot of years saying the wrong thing.

Then apologizing for saying the wrong thing.

Then, once again, saying the wrong thing. Then apologizing.

I got to the point where I just apologized beforehand for the wrong thing I was about to say.

It was a little crazy making. I was always one opinion or statement or question away from an apology.

Then one day, I stopped worrying about whether what I said was right or wrong or purple.

And I stopped apologizing.

I realized that my voice is important to someone, somewhere – regardless of what someone else, somewhere else thinks.

I decided that just because certain people needed me to agreeable all the time, that there were times where I just didn’t feel agreeable.

I also got tired of apologizing.

So, I changed my story.

Not overnight. Nothing really happens overnight.

But here’s what’s cool about changing my story.

It didn’t just change me.

It changed everyone around me.

Changing my story changed other stories too.

A few years ago when he was in preschool, my son decided he didn’t like the ending to one of his books.

So, he changed the ending.

I love the symbolism in that.

I love his confidence to make the story his own and I love that somehow, somewhere he absorbed that from his mama.