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Your Example

I'm still full from yesterday. I somewhat regret getting the extra portion of carbonara plus the ajillo and garlic toast when I kinda knew Osamu wasn't going to eat that whole pizza. Which I ate. I will eat until I'm sick if it means not wasting food. And that makes zero sense I know. And this was me eating lunch with a six-year-old.

Kenzo was home again today even though he's fine. It's the strict flu quarantine. Today's the last day. He stayed in his PJs all day and lived it up doing his aquabeads and watching Doraemon on Netflix and coming up to my office and asking me to print obscure Beyblade coloring sheets.

There's this ideal I have come to adhere to... the world is changed by your example, not by your opinion. It sounds great in theory, but in practice it’s obviously a whole different story, especially when life keeps throwing tests your way.

With Kenzo still home under flu quarantine, honestly, I felt annoyed. But instead of dwelling on it, I just let it go. Which is hard for me. You'd think letting go would be easy. Just let go. It's the opposite of effort. Holding on is effort. Letting go is just nothing. And yet I struggle with it daily.

At work, I'm doing fiscal year end 1-on-1 check-ins with my team, focusing on staying present and non-judgmental. Close all the apps, close the emails, close the tabs, turn off self view, find a way to naturally have my hands visible in the Zoom screen so everyone knows I'm there physically and mentally. Sometimes I think I hope you guys appreciate what I'm doing but then I take a step back emotionally and remember it's for me more than it's for them.

Eri’s back pain flared up again, but luckily she had a chiropractor appointment already set for this morning. I’m worried about her, but instead of just saying so, I tried to make sure she didn’t have to push herself too hard. I took Osamu to the bus stop and picked him up when he came home, and I carried laundry baskets up and down the stairs and tried to lay off the puns and dad jokes that somehow make her back pain worse.

None of these are grand gestures, but they’re little reminders to me that showing up with patience, support, and understanding matters more than just having opinions about what should be different.

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