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Family – Instant Sean

Instant Sean

Tag: Family

  • One Shot…

    One Shot…

    My wonderful BOLD wife Joanna Watson Donahue took a chance, left her comfort zone because she knew one thing… let me tell you a story to illustrate it:

    For my first wife Angela & my first house, it was going to the house that had a tree stump in the middle of the living room. The sellers never had the stump removed when they built the house, they just put a glass table on top of it.

    Don’t get me started about the cow house that had cows EVERYWHERE including the wall paper and didn’t have a working HVAC system inside….

    Or the house whose sunken living room had a spa in the middle of it.

    Joanna knows that every family has a “home” story. Those were the stories I still tell today because when we saw the teacup roses outside our current home we knew it was perfect.

    Right now, she’s looking for the first referral, the first opportunity, the first person who will discover that she is willing, wanting and able to do whatever it takes to be their real estate agent.

    Enimem said it in “Lose Yourself,”

    “Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
    To seize everything you ever wanted, in one moment
    Would you capture it, or just let it slip?”

    She’s willing to capture it. Are you willing to give her one shot?

    Try her app :
  • Words, Just words

    Words, Just words

    There are many lessons in life fathers teach their children. But only one necessary lesson. I bring this up because I failed in teaching this lesson and it hurts my soul.

    My friends and family know of the torment I suffered at the loss of my sister Tara. I never said goodbye or that I loved her and those lack of finality still haunt me to this day, lesser now than in the past.

    But I learned my lesson and make an effort each time to wish people as I leave their presence, my fond wishes of them. When my brother died in 2006 in a car accident, the last words I said to him was “I love you.” When he died, I had closure and peace. I am horrible at hand writing but my wonderful wife is very specific about thank you notes. She sends them like leaves in the wind in the fall.

    Give thanks. It seems simple and easy but millennial’s bristle at the thought of thanking anybody. They think they deserve everything. I once had an intern who at the end of his internship ask me where his office would be when he got a job with our company. I told him offices weren’t handed out to starting employees and earned from hard work. He quit because he wasn’t getting an office.

    Give me a break.

    I try to tell my kids, my friends and even my family how much I care about them every chance I get. I never know if that one chance I fail to say it will be the one time they need it the most.

    Simple words, but they have power and meaning. I Love You.

    I Love You Joanna. I tell her it every day because my life without her had no meaning.

    I Love You Shelby & Ryan. I tell them it every time we speak because I never know how long I will be on this earth.

    I Love You Mom & Dad. Because as they are in their golden years, I’m not sure how many times I will get to tell them those words.

    They are just words Sean, they don’t have any power.

    Tell that to a son who wishes he could tell his dad Happy Father’s Day one more time.

    Tell that to a daughter who wishes she could hold her mom tight one more time.

    Words you say. They have more power than any hateful words you can think of. I can ignore hate, I can shuffle hate to ignorance. But you can’t ignore love. In your darkest days, in your miserable nights, love will always shine through.

    Love means I understand you are eighteen and scared. It means I’ve been there too and I want you to learn from the mistakes I made so you don’t have to have the pain that I have. Your heart won’t hurt from being as broken as my has been.

    Love is forever, so when you have determined my punishment is over I will be here.

    Because I love you forever, that’s what father’s do.

  • Parenting : The Masters Class

    Parenting : The Masters Class

    Dear Mom and Dad,

    Growing up I asked you all the time about parenting. Not all the “How does going to bed at 7 P.M. is going to help my development as a future adult,” but “why,”?

    You always seemed to have the answers. The questions you didn’t have the answer to, you just told me that I would understand when I got older.

    Initially I thought it was a blow off answer. But now I know you were right.

    For all the mistakes I made, you were there to pick me up.

    For all the mistakes you made, you tried the best you could under trying circumstances

    For all the hard times we had financially, you gave value to the possessions we did have.

    For every meaningless toy we wanted but couldn’t and shouldn’t have gotten, you gave us an adventures money could never buy. How many stories could we fill about adventures on the way to adventures, such as walking down a parkway in Chicago to get White Castle or me wasting a half of a roll of film to get a picture of a rooster at Knotts Berry Farm.

    I just didn’t get it.
    For the hand me down that filled our closets, there were stories behind each of them.

     

    You gave us hope through the darkness of a New York blackout, and love through the darkest moments in our family. When people attempted to divide, we came closer as a family.

    You asked me this weekend if anything was wrong.
    This weekend I was quiet, just swallowing every little moment, savoring the opportunities, every hug, kiss and second with my kids, like you used to do to me.

     

    I used to push you away, in fear of something I could never put my finger on, maybe it was a cool factor or just misunderstanding the moment you were having.

    I just didn’t get it as a child

    Love is a fleeting gift, a moment that is here and gone. Moments, like Shelby’s graduation won’t be measured in the seconds of confusion or anger over something trivial but will be measured in the tears that fell from my eyes as Shelby’s name was called.
    There never has been a book on parenting your kids the way you have and thus it’s the reason I’ve realized this afternoon I had taken a masters course in parenting all during my life.

    I didn’t get it when I was a kid but I finally understand today.

    I love you,

    sd

  • Not easy being divorced…

    Not easy being divorced…

     
    For years I have told my friends that living as a divorced dad isn’t easy. With my daughter and son being across the country from where I live, I couldn’t come over and fix the problems they encountered in their lives. It wasn’t easy. I also did not make it easy on them with living arrangements. It was either their mom’s place or mine! There were no bouncing around like a super ball in an enclosed glass space.
     
    I was a jerk. I had to be. If I made life easy on them, I would be doing them a disservice. I have always told them “life isn’t fair, you have to fight for what you believe in.”
     
    So I was completely blown away when my daughter told me of her decision not to go to Ball State. She decided her goals could succeed at Indiana University – Southeast. Part of me pained, definitely my wallet as I had found different things with Ball State Cardinals on it. But I digress.
     
    She was afraid to tell me because she thought I would be mad. She didn’t want to hurt my feelings. That’s how considerate my daughter is. There are plenty of words in this world describing my Shelby. I am not sure I can articulate them all in one post. Every time I look at her with the feeling of failure, because I wasn’t there every day, from her first bike ride to her first dance. I was wrong. Somehow by osmosis, by some miracle, I have no idea, my daughter got it right. She thinks of others and not her own happiness and somehow, by a miracle, I get it.
     
    All the sacrifices we make as parents, are mere pittance, to the ones we fail to see.
     
    I told Joanna I failed as a father, and yet somehow tripped into a wonderful woman. I have to give her mother and stepfather credit. They did a good job.
     
    This week a friend of mine was having issues with his kids. He does anything and everything to make them happy. But yet his kids treat him with anger and pain.
     
    He asked me what the secret of being a divorced dad was.
     
    I shrugged my shoulders and said, “taking it one day at a time. Somehow, by some miracle, my daughter that was learning to walk a mere blink ago, is graduating from high school. Grab those moments, forget about the bad ones, laugh, love and keep moving forward.”
     
    One day you will trip and realize in your effort to do everything right, that somehow, you survived. And that my friends is what being a long distance parent is all about.
     
     
     
     
     
  • Regrets, Ethics or Anything There is a College Course In

    Regrets, Ethics or Anything There is a College Course In

    Forward:

    “I can’t afford regrets, ethics or anything there is a college course in,” I thought to myself as I took my first real job in radio, throwing away a career in sales at the Radio Shack. Looking back on that day, I wonder if I could do it over again, come to think of it I would.

    I had worked part-time at the college radio station and part-time at the South Plains Mall at the ‘shack trying to get through the educational boredom at Texas Tech in the early 90’s. Boy, looking back on my life in radio, I’ve accomplished plenty.

    But the stories that few have heard are the ones I need to tell. Like the time I connected Richie McDonald and his mom on an early conference call, walking down 4th on Broadway parade in an eagle costume and passing out at the Texas Tech fountain, and I won’t forget the stories of the people who my team and I have helped on the way.

    Sure, I will change the names of the guilty, but those jackasses will know who they are. Cause this story, like most stories told by one of my college professor Johnny Hughes is 90% truth with a hint of bull.

    So Josh McCormack, thank for the kick in the ass. I sure as hell needed it.

    To my children Shelby & Ryan, everything I do, I truly do for you. To my wonderful wife Joanna, yes, you were asleep as this seed started its growth, but I know as I start on this journey, I expect you will aid me with plenty of fertilizing and weeding of my ideas. To my family, I blame you for my warped sense of humor and allowing me hamming opportunities that I have always thought was moderately funny. Okay, kind of funny. Maybe funny ut oh?

    To “Regrets, Ethics or Anything There is a College Course In.”

    Let’s ride!