You may know I have a son. His name is Tad, and he is about to be 14 years old. He is a handsome, emotionally put together young man. A couple of months ago I told him:
You are coming of age. It is time for you and I to take a trip together, through which we will bond, and we will both expore how is it that one may come to live a meaningful life.
The old forgotten rite of passage. Machelle and I had talked about that this time would come. It was time. Tad tells me that at the moment he thought I was going to take him out to the wilderness for a week, or take him to the middle of a lake and throw him there and see him swim back to the shore. I said, instead:
You and I are going to Byron Katie’s three-day Relationship Workshop in Chicago.
He was strangely relieved. I asked him how he felt about that, and he said he would do it.
What you will read in the upcoming posts is his own account of how the weekend went for him. He wrote the text you will read as part of an assignment he had for school, about community service. His take on it was that being a facilitator of The Work is a form of community service. Enjoy.
Tad’s experiences at the Relationship Workshop (Part One)
Tad’s experiences at the Relationship Workshop (Part Two)
Tad’s experiences at the Relationships Workshop (Part Three)
Oh my heavens….what an amazing gift and rite to being Tad to. I keep wondering what it would do for teens to have more of this in their lives at such an early age- how will it change the ways in which they experience these transitional years, how will it impact their lives, what would it do for relationship, community.
Blessings to you for being such an amazing parent!!
Thank you, Pamm. What I can tell you is: what an amazing gift is for me to be a part of this Peace movement and to have more of this Work at my age. I notice that my whole world is changing because of it, and that includes my son. Stay tuned for upcoming workshops by Katie for children and their parents.
Very cool.
As a man, a father, and a coach who works with men and dads, rites of passage are something I’m very interested in. Especially substitutes for throwing our sons into the middle of lakes. I take it that posting his own story here was offered as part of the rite!
I’ve not studied The Work in detail, just having come across it, but recognise its power and where it’s coming from. Before training with CTI as a coach I did some of Landmark Education’s excellent courses - I’d love for my son (currently nearing 11 years old) to do their teenagers course as a rite of passage in 2 or 3 years time.
I really get that Tad is going to be someone to listen to in the years to come. Great parenting!
Mark Lister