Magic Marker Mission Statement

One of the first things we did after my ex left was to create a mission statement for the remaining three of us, a verbal picture of how we wanted our home to be.

We had hung magic marker mission statements up in our home for years, but one of us jumped ship, so we needed a new one that put the three of us on the same ship. We were all heartbroken and stunned, and I was trying to think of anything and everything I could do to help the three of us focus on light and love and not on our pain.

We brainstormed together and listed the things that were important to all of us, the things we wanted in our family and our home of three. We wrote:

We three daring explorers of the HAM home- Henry, Annabelle, and Mom do herby strive for a home full of creativity and kindness, integrity and intellectual curiosity, the freedom to make mistakes and ask for rewinds, music, magic, dance, delight, positive words and actions, books, nature walks, and things that are good for the soul, pillow fighting, jumping on the bed, snuggles, laughter, light, love, love, love, and more LOVE!

And we all signed it taped it up on our kitchen cabinets where we would see it all the time and read it to each other. Henry was 11 when we wrote it, and he came up with the HAM home, because we had just seen Hamilton on Broadway and he loved that Alexander Hamilton signed his name A. Ham.

When someone loses it occasionally, gets really hangry, or grumpy, or plays a prank on a sibling that goes sideways, we ask for rewinds. It’s pretty amazing how it works. We all look at each other, take a deep breath, and carry on like it never happened, and no one has had to ask for a rewind in over a year!

We return to it again and again, whenever we need a tuneup in the form of a good old fashioned jump-on-the-bed dance party, or a quiet walk in the woods, or just to remember our commitment to each other and to the home we have created. If anyone wants to add anything, it is always open to change as the kids get older and our lives change, but no one has added anything yet, because so far it’s been perfect.