Listening to my daughter talk about her feelings and the dynamics of kid interaction at school, I realize the following:

1. Middle school is “Lord of the Flies” harsh even when it’s a good school;
2. People can be really judgmental, including my kid;
3. A middle schooler wants more than anything to be accepted; the hardest thing to do is to befriend someone who is an “outcast,” because you risk your own social safety;
4. I suck at listening, despite being a psychotherapist (psycho therapist?);
5. All my childhood wounds are activated;
6. I have to WORK REALLY HARD to keep my mouth shut, my heart open, and to accept I do not have control over this.

BEING PRESENT with someone else’s suffering, especially when that someone is the most precious treasure of my life, is the hardest soul task I’ve encountered.