My little family and I were in San Jose, California for a huge family

get together, um, almost a reunion.

My, um, uncle turned 80, so my aunts, my uncles, my cousins got together.

People I haven't seen in years and it's an Italian family, so, things were very

loud, uh, very loud, and there were lots of hugs and smiles to go around.

Uh, we met up at, of course, an Italian restaurant, Maggiano's in San Jose.

So there is, of course, lots of food to go along with the smiles

and the hugs and the loudness.

Uh, oh, by the way, I'm Justin Sincere, um, a therapist and coach,

and I just wanted to kinda share a little bit about, uh, my life.

If you're new here, welcome to Stuck Not Broken.

So it's the next morning.

And sorry if you could hear my dog in the background.

It's the next morning and my little family and I are slept in until

6:30 AM My wife woke me up by grabbing my foot and shaking it.

My wife, my son and I ate the continental breakfast at the hotel while my

daughter slept in a little bit longer.

And then we went back up to the room.

I was sitting on a bench, uh, just eating an apple, just processing, thinking.

I was thinking about.

The night before the conversations and reflecting on my life, my

upbringing, uh, the conversations I had with my brothers and how my wife

and I are raising our own children.

So I was just sitting on the bench in the hotel room, um, sitting quietly,

processing, and then a balloon came out of the hotel sky and slowly

lowering itself toward me as a balloon would do so as it was lowering.

My son says.

Hit it back and I felt a wave of irritation come over me.

Why irritation?

I honestly, I don't know.

Um, and it, it really doesn't matter.

Maybe it was because my processing was interrupted while I sat

on the bench quietly in peace.

Maybe I was irritated all along that morning and only

realized it at that moment.

Or perhaps my son's command.

And the pressure of hitting the balloon before it touched the ground brought

me out of safety through flight and into fight in that split second.

I don't know.

And again, it, it really, um, it does not matter.

What matters is that between the moment my son said, hit it back,

and the moment the balloon was about to bounce off of my bald head.

I did indeed hit it back in that fraction of a sec- I came through-

in that fraction of a second, a thought came to me along with, uh,

the irritation that I was feeling.

The thought was this moment may never happen again.

Did I think this thought and then shift my states out of irritation or did the

sound of my son's voice trigger enough safety that my thought changed on its own?

Interesting question, but again, it, it doesn't really matter.

The thought came and so did the playfulness to snap out of my

processing and to hit it back to him.

If you have not, by the way, if you have not had the opportunity to hit a

balloon back and forth with somebody recently, you are missing out.

It is the most peaceful and playful thing that you can do, I swear.

But it could also be the most competitive and playful thing you can do as well.

Maybe especially perhaps with a kid.

I've heard there's actually a professional sport called keepie-uppie, something

like that, which is balloon hitting.

That moment anyhow, um, likely will happen again.

He's a 10-year-old boy and I think I have a few more years of balloon

hitting left, but maybe not.

You never know.

My daughter and I hit balloons for quite a while.

I think she's grown outta that by now.

The mo, although maybe if I just hit one to her and said, Hey, hit it back.

Um, I assume that she'd snap out of it and probably hit it back, even

though she's a very independent, a 16 and a half year old.

I'll have to experiment with with that.

But um, yeah, it might not happen again.

You never know.

The moment of my wife shaking my foot may never happen again either.

I think it will.

We tend to wake each other up with touch, but you never know, do you?

So I don't know how this relates to you and your life.

If you ever, if you ever have the chance to, to hit a

balloon back, make sure you do.

Even if you'd rather sit and process while eating an apple,

that moment may never happen again.

And I don't mean this in a morbid way, although that is a reality as well.

No, I, I mean this in a literal sense, like that opportunity to connect in that

way, that opportunity to be playful in that manner, it, it simply, it just may

not come up again and you'll miss out.

So this, I dunno, consider this me hitting a balloon to you with a smile on my face.

Boop.