“I tears. I cry,” he whimpered to me with his puffy lower lip sticking out as he wiped away the two tear strains rolling down his cheek. “Everybody cries, baby. Mama cries. Daddy cries. Ma cries. Pa cries. It’s okay to cry,” I say to Declan, “It just shows that you care so deeply.” At that moment Declan mostly cared about not having Saline solution blown up his nose and having an ow-wow-wow. But a poignant lesson, nonetheless, no matter how small or big the problem may seem. Sometimes as positive-forward-thinking leaders we feel the pressure to always be “on,” meaning we always have to be positive and forward-thinking. Nonsense. You’re not an automoton. You’re human. Feelings hit. They happen. It’s natural and normal to feel feelings - all of them. And, yes, positive thinkers, that includes feeling sad, angry, peeved, frustrated, vengeful, rage, shame, guilt, fear, and the rest of the glorious spectrum of feelings that we have. When you suppress them, repress them or try to escape them, it only makes feelings WORSE. That’s when it comes down to a choice - a choice to hold onto them to bury them in a shit-pile of fear, shame, and guilt for being HUMAN in the first place!