Lessons for Cal

There are so many things I want to teach Cal.  Here are a few that are on my mind right now...

I want to teach him to be happy, not just when everything is going right, but even in the midst of trials I want him to know joy and contentedness.  I want to show Cal that bad things happen.  That people will hurt you.  That life is scary.  But it's ok to live life, to thrive in life, to enjoy life despite those things.  Making new friends is a risk...they might use what they know of you against you, but people need people, and a good friend is worth the risk.  Life is worth living even after the hurt.  Not living life only allows the person who hurt you to continue controlling and hurting you...even when they live hundreds of miles away.  I want to show him that sometimes the beginning is the ending and the ending is the beginning.  For me, this is the beginning of my old life meeting my new life to make my best life.  
I never want Cal to look back and say "My mom was too scared to try."  I want Cal to always know that I was scared, but I lived life anyways.  I want him to be able to say, even when I am gone, if my mom was here she would try, because it is in the trying that we discover so much.