Ryan and I have not played ball hockey in the backyard since our last series concluded more than a month ago. There are several reasons for that, weather and business travel among them. There’s also a larger plan at work. Ever since he began keeping statistics of the games and organizing them into best-of series […]
Read more "Motivation"A few weeks back, Ryan came to us with an idea for a school storytelling assignment. He was really excited about his idea. His parents? Not so much. We tried everything we could think of to persuade him in a different direction. He was insistent. He was stubborn. We tried enlisting his aide, over email, […]
Read more "To Protect, or Stand Down?"“Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.” It’s a quote famously attributed to legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. Thankfully, Mr. Lombardi wasn’t speaking of youth sports. He was a professional coach, paid to deliver results with players whose job it was to play football. He was not speaking of, […]
Read more "Show Me a Good Loser"Ryan was ambivalent about going to his regular weekly hockey practice on Tuesday. To discover why required a bit of parental detective work. Ryan was originally supposed to miss the practice for his school’s winter concert, which was part of his music grade. Except we got a dose of snow on Tuesday and the concert […]
Read more "We’re Talking About Practice"In the midst of our airport saga last week, there were moments. Moments of happiness. Of pure joy. Moments that came of Ryan’s mind, his unique imagination, his passion and focus. Moments that only he could produce. And those moments deserve to have their story told. I need to back up. In the late fall, […]
Read more "The Bet, Take Two"
Pucks and Puzzle Pieces 