Ahhhhh, Stress

I don't know if this will be as good of a post as it would have been if I had written it when I thought of it -- when my household was a ball of stress, but I will try my best. I wanted to talk about how we handle stress. As you know, Naji is now a performer. Last weekend he performed at the Bach Festival, and Wednesday his school choir performed at Tuacahn. Each performance stressed him to the verge of tears. A part of me wanted to get after him and tell him this was easy stress compared to what he will face in the future. Luckily a better part of me asked myself, "How am I teaching him to handle stress." He'd seen me choke as I accompanied Joseph on Friday night. He'd seen me panic that the ukulele number would "never work" as we prepared for Saturday night. And on Tuesday night, as I prepared to play the Bach Organ, he'd seen tears stream down my face.

To top it off Judea had a big film shoot last week, and she was a ball of nerves. Her instructor was insisting that she not only direct her short, but that she also film it. And Joe and Cameron and Bobo all had performances.

So what did Naji learn. Hopefully, he learned that we all understood that everyone was under stress. We gave people allowances and did what we could to ease each others' burdens. And best of all, we didn't stop. We muscled through the anxiety and did what we'd set out to do. Goals Completed!