[Story I shared last night at the Santa Clara Awakin Circle.]

Thank you for those lovely stories on relationships. I'm going to offer a story from the other end -- as a father.

Just today, I was playing catch with my son, Jett. I hate baseball but he loves it and it became apparent why.

I was playing catch with him, as he's learning to catch. Every time he tries to catch the ball, he steps out of the way so that if he misses, the ball won't hit him. So I told him: "Jett, you got to stay in front the ball. You're missing the ball because you're so afraid it's going to hit you." He's like, "Why? I can catch this way." "Yeah, but it's not efficient. You can even watch the pros and they don't catch like that," I said. He protests, "Why? Why? Why?" And at one point, I'm like, "All right, whatever. I don't care. Catch it however you want it."

Then I started mimicking him, like stepping out of the way and catching the ball. Naturally, he started getting sad. At a certain point, he just wouldn't throw the ball. "Jet, throw me the ball." He just held the ball and so I threw my mit down and said, "Okay, fine. We're not going to play catch anymore." He started crying, and then pleaded, "Daddy, please play catch with me, please play catch." I came back and then I started firing the ball at him. Pretty hard, actually. At the time, Jett had other ideas: "Let's do something else, let's bat." My response is, "Nope. You need to learn to catch." He's like, "I don't want to catch anymore, Daddy. I don't want to catch, let me bat." "No, there's too many people around. You'll hit somebody."

Actually, I was making excuses. It occurred to me that my step dad and I used play catch and he'd do the exact same thing. He'd throw it super hard at me and I'd get out of the way and he'd be like, "Stay in front of it." I hated it and that's why I hated baseball.

At that point, I caught myself: "Oh my God. I'm doing to my son what my step dad did to me." Jett loves baseball, so I should let him enjoy it. I softened up and said, "Okay, go get your bat. Let's hit some balls." After we batted for a bit, I just started tossing balls really soft, underhanded and would gently invite him to stay in front it. And now, he could do it!

It was a beautiful thing. I felt like playing catch with him was like playing catch with myself. Being gentle with him was being the way I wanted to be taught to play baseball. And I'm so grateful for baseball even though I hated it, growing up. I'm so grateful for it because it's building this conscious relationship with Jett. We don't talk -- we just toss and we're bonding, with ourselves and each other.