As I stood in the kitchen with a crying baby, tears started to stream down my face. I was at a loss; I didn’t know what was wrong, “Ahhhh, just stop crying!” I had tried the usual holding and nursing and napping and nursing and holding. You get the picture, and nothing was working.
Jude enjoying the sunshine
Michael appeared in the kitchen doorway and witnessed Jude and I in an awful state. Me pacing, Jude crying. He evaluated the situation and realized something needed to be done. Quick as a wink, he swept Jude up off the floor and grabbed a blanket and the basket of Jude’s toys and disappeared outside.
I followed him sporting sunglasses the size of Montana to hide my remaining tears. I heard some clinking and running water, and within moments, Michael reappeared with a small metal tub full of warm water.
“Take his clothes off and put him in the tub,” he said, “He’ll love it, trust me.” I quickly sat myself in the grass, stripped Jude naked, and stuck him in the little metal tub.
There was peace.
We sat in the warm afternoon sun, him giggling and splashing and me enjoying the change of emotions from just moments before. The rest of our day was wonderful. That simple change of course re-aligned us both.
So, lesson learned. When something isn’t working, do something different! It rang especially true for me today.
We are never stuck. We can always change direction and do something different.
Question: Has doing something different ever changed your day… or life?
Claudia such good advice! I think we tend to spin our wheels doing the same things thinking something will change when just doing something different moves us out of that rut! Great illustration and as you showed – sometimes it is very helpful to have another pair of eyes look at the situation and see what can be changed.
It sure does Ann!!! I’ve spun my wheels for years trying the same things and thinking the same way. No more!!!!
Hey, on another topic have you ever read this blog?? http://nourishedkitchen.com/
I bet you would enjoy it!
and yet another question – do you know much about mercury detox or Hashimoto’s disease? Would love to hear your take 😉
Claudia, that’s interesting you bring that up. I’d like to know Ann’s take on this myself. We spent several thousand dollars on a naturopath/chiroprator last year doing bloodwork, treatments, etc and the end result was that my wife had Hashimoto’s disesase. It was mostly eliminating allergins and taking supplements. We got the books, read up on it, followed the protocol for several month, but we never saw any improvement of her pain issues.
Oh Michael!… check out this blog! http://nourishedkitchen.com/deliciously-organic-recipe-grain-free-carrot-cupcakes/
She talks about exactly that and she is almost better through changing her diet… which I know you have already been doing! It is a guest post but both sites are awesome.
I have been having a lot of unexplained knee pain and just stumbled upon this thought… so I am checking it out. Does your wife have a lot of amalgam dental fillings? Strange question, but having tooth work done brought about my symptoms…
Those cupcakes looked good – we are always having a time with my daughter’s diet trying to find things she’ll eat. We both tried goat cheese for the first time today and she loved it. It had a texture of cream cheese, so it would be perfect for this cupcakes.
I asked our dentist about those silver amalgam fillings before in regards to my wife (heard the same concerns). She actually has only one of those fillings as she’s very look conscious and insisted on paying the extra for ceramic type over the years. Glad we did now. However, our dentist was telling me that in days past the dentist would mix up their own ratio of ingredients to make the filling, so many times the mercury level would be way high, but now that’s not so much the case due to prepackaging of the ingredients now..of something like that. Plus he said something about the mercury being naturally drawn to the other ingredient making it much less likely it would ever “leak”. My mouth is full of the silver stuff though.
I hope you make the knee – pain connection soon! We are always uncovering stones for information in our house.
Thanks! me too…
I can so relate to your story here. Lots of experience with wife wife and daughter. If I see them in an upset state and I join in their emotional party, it just gets worse. If I smile, give them a pat on the back, and say “It’s going to be OK” or a “We’ll get through this…” or “I bet we could do…”, etc., I often get a smile back in time and things are on the mend.
haha you are a wise husband Michael 🙂
Very cool outcome! This officially makes Michael worthy of the “Daddy Difference” award (I’m just not sure what that is yet). Why can’t stories like this be portrayed by the media and Hollywood instead of the opposite? Thanks for leading your family, Michael!
It truly does Ryan! He deserves “Daddy Difference” award a thousand times over! So, when you figure out what it is let me know 😉
Hey Ryan, thanks for the kind words. I’m better at it some days than others.
You’re welcome. I know that feeling well!
Chalk one up for dads!
haha, totally!
Simple and powerful. Occam’s Razor at it’s finest. Thank you so much for being so transparent. Great family victory, glad you got to enjoy both the moment and the rest of your day!
Hey Rick,
Sure!
I am not aware of Occam’s Razor… should I be??
Hi Claudia, I copied this from a post I wrote on simplicity a while back.
Ok, many of us have heard of the principle known as Occam’s Razor. If not, a good summary is “other things being equal, a simpler explanation is better than a more complex one.” Another way of thinking through this is that the simplest path with the least amount of steps is usually the right answer.
There you go. A logician, William of Okham, is credited with this theory, around the 1200-1300’s. Have a great day!
Very cool! It’s amazing how little things like that can change everything in a heartbeat. Sometimes a simple change in scenery will do wonders for me. If I’m cramped in the office from working a little too long, but still need to get things done, I’ll just bring my work somewhere else; like outside. Peace usually follows the change in scenery…
Totally Rob! Being outside ALWAYS brings peace for me as well!