Two words, One meaning

As parents we used in our day to day vocabulary two Portuguese words more often than any others, recently I have been thinking why?

In spite of being two very distinct words, they seemed to serve always an identical purpose or objective, at least for us they conveyed similar meaning as we raised our children.

Cuidado - A word to warn us that ahead are obstacles or challenges that can be prevented if precautions are taken along the way, a form of showing concern and care, of calling our attention for something important, of being thoughtful and aware of how precious life is . Calma - A word that invites to slow a little to avoid problems that can be encountered if we rush too fast into things, a sister word of tranquility and peace.

At first it might seem these words imparted a sense of fear or lack of confidence in what lays ahead, but as I look in retrospective as a parent, they meant exactly the opposite, we used them because we really saw the opportunities of life in front of us if we would be careful and wise with our choices and if we lived in peace with ourselves and others around us.

And now that we don't have children at home and they have families of their own what two words would we use? Let me think... the same!

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