Finding Balance

Archive for July 14th, 2010

The author of this guest post is Michael Duvall

Every day I’m excited to get home after work. Why? Because I will have an opportunity to check my e-mail. I know most people don’t get overly excited about this. Okay … maybe some do, but I have an excuse. My mother had been ‘away’ for several years. I won’t get into why she was away. I’ll leave that to your imagination. The only hints I can give are: piano, police, truck. Yes, it’s that crazy of a story. Anyway, now that my mother has returned, I’m very happy to keep in touch with her. Due to long distance fees, she prefers not to talk on the phone. This was sad at first, but now I see it as a blessing in disguise. Instead of talking once per week, we communicate using my satellite internet Scottsdale every single day.

Through our communications, my mom tells me all kinds of crazy stories – from all kinds of crazy places. I enjoy these stories very much, especially since she’s such a good writer. The only piece of news she has shared using her satellite internet South Dakota that bothers me is that she has picked up the habit of smoking. This is unreal to me since she always preached against it. At first, I berated her for it, but now I’m trying to take the calm approach to get her to stop. No luck so far, but I’m not going to give up. Even if she doesn’t quit smoking, I’m still happy to communicate with her on a daily basis.