Sunday, December 11, 2005

Lessons from the Goblet of Fire


Last night we went to see Harry Potter with all of the kids to celebrate Ricardo’s birthday. There were a couple lines in the movie (and I don’t have direct quotes so don’t be correcting me) that were significant to me.

Before entering a large maze, the warning was “Be careful not only that you don’t get lost, but that you don’t lose yourself.” I found this a fair warning to anyone who is heading into the path of parenting hurt children. When I first started this journey, I was a fairly normal person -- good sense of humor, bright, fun and funny, and with a great deal of resiliency. After about 4 years of this I found myself at an all time low. I hardly recognized myself any more. I didn’t have much fun any more, I was angry and disappointed a great deal of the time, and I felt like a complete failure. It was at that point that I realized that not only had I gotten lost somewhere along the way, but more importantly, I had lost myself. It was at that point that I began my journey to return to some of who I was, though more mature and even more resilient than before.

The second line comes at the end of the movie when Professor Dumbledore is talking to Harry. He says to Harry, “Difficult days are ahead... days when we are going to have to decide between what is easy and what is right.”

I’ve blogged about this many times before, but so many people make decisions about doing things based on whether or not they will be hard. I try to make my decisions based on what is right, not on what is easy.

It is my hope that during the coming months I can always trust myself to decide to do what is right, not what is easy.

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