I’m going to keep this entry pretty short–we’re still recovering from our 24-hour birthday party extravaganza around here.

Leading is easy for me. Following, though–that can be more challenging. I often put myself in positions where I can take on the lead. But there are clearly times (and probably those times are more clear to others than to myself) when instead of jumping out front, I should be listening for guidance, and then following that lead.

So it’s not a mindless following I’m after–more of a mindful following, I guess.

I had a pretty good idea what I was going to do today–haul out as much as I could of the piled up cardboard boxes stored down in the basement and bring them to recycling. And trust me, it needs to be done. But then, my middle child asked me what we were going to do today. I tried to get him all excited about a trip to the recycling center, but he wasn’t buying it.

When I asked him what he had in mind, his response was: “I dunno. I was just hoping we could do something outside of the house.”

Now, I spend plenty of time with all three of my kids, but I don’t have a lot of one-on-one time with my middle child. So I made a decision. I told him he was in charge–choose the path, and I would follow.

We ended up taking the dog out to a big park the next town over. No big adventures here, but just the two of us and the dog. We walked a couple of miles and talked about whatever popped into our heads. We just hung out.

I guess what was refreshing here was to be able to drop whatever I thought was the next thing on the agenda and follow someone else’s priorities for the day.

And in retrospect, my son definitely had his–and my– priorities in the right order.