THE DAILY GROOVE ~ by Scott Noellewww.enjoyparenting.com/dailygroove:: The Power of an Open Heart ::Think of something that always opens your heart.It can be anything: an uplifting story or movie, aninspiring song or poem, a glorious sunset, a majesticforest, a beloved friend's embrace, a purringkitten... You get the idea.Now contemplate it vividly until you actually *feel*your heart opening. Pay close attention to thatexpansive feeling in your chest, and try to "memorize"it. (For some, the feeling may be quite subtle atfirst.)Repeat this process until you can easily recall thefeeling of your heart being wide open.Next, set the intention that -- for one full day --you'll deliberately reach for that open-heart feeling*before* you do or say anything to your child...every time.This is not about being "nice." You can say "no" withyour heart wide open and it'll feel like a yes!Let go of all pre-conceived ideas of what an openheart is. Remember it's the *feeling* you're reaching for. http://dailygroove.net/open-heart
I just love this, and the very first moment that I thought was when my husband I reunited at Tendaba Camp in TG. We were returning from a week in the villages and I had not seen him since the previous week. Our bus pulled up and I saw him standing amoung a bunch of other volunteers. The second he saw me through the bus window his face lit up. For some reason, this one moment in time has been permanently etched in my mind and after reading this (above) I instantly reflected to this moment in life. That *one* look said it all to me...
Monday, February 12, 2007
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Love this!
"When we adults think of children there is a simple truth that we ignore: childhood is not preparation for life; childhood is life. A child isn't getting ready to live; a child is living. No child will miss the zest and joy of living unless these are denied by adults who have convinced themselves that childhood is a period of preparation. How much heartache we would save ourselves if we would recognize children as partners with adults in the process of living, rather than always viewing them as apprentices. How much we could teach each other; we have the experience and they have the freshness. How full both our lives could be."
John A. Taylor Notes on an Unhurried Journey
John A. Taylor Notes on an Unhurried Journey
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Trains...
The latest... it was our turn to teach the FHC this past week. Felt like all this anticipation of trying to throw together this class... made me realize even more how much I love the idea of RU. The weather has been an atrocious sub-zero nightmare for the last week or more (feels like months at this point). I have been wanting to tackle so many other projects here around the house, and then suddenly it dawns on me, "Yikes... it's my turn to teach!"
The benefit was it retriggered Kaidin's first (but long lost) love of trains. When born, during that first year, that somewhat inherent trait of the pure passion to 'breathe' trains was something Kaidin fully went through. We fully satiated that topic. Did train exhibtions, museums, rides, resource books, collections... you name it. We followed Thomas nearly around the country! This need to *have* to teach trains reengaged that first love a bit. So that made it a bit more fun. I was truly worried that this would be so redundant that we would have wished we picked a different topic to teach!
Well... the class was not overly exciting, and after having planned for 16 children, only half showed each day. That in itself is quite depressing when you put so much time and effort into it... it's a real lull in your (my) personal excitment.
Oh well. Now recovering from that and trying to tackle the next project of cleaning out the enormous filing cabinet. I figure it's a good time as I had to gather papers, receipts and the like to get the taxes done here in the next few days, so good time to do the purging of documents as well. I put that poor shredder into overdrive (and overheating!) several times today. We headed out to get to playgroup and our poor car was solid frozen. Had to wait several hours to find a jump and then we were off and running, though not with out the panic in my head that the car would die at the grocery store or something.
I tell ya, I'm totally done with this cold weather. I could easily do with out this completely. It's not at all fun to feel the verge of frostbite just walking to your car!
Aside, there is an unschooling conference in Wisconsin on Saturday and I am not feeling the major push to get there. I hate paying for things like that and then backing out. But my drive to get there has diminished quite a bit. It would be a 3 hour trek for me each way, and this past few weeks has been rough. It would be nice to have a quiet weekend... AND, we do have the In-Home conference at the end of the month that I definitly do not want to miss at all. Can you tell I'm just making excuses here? Time to just fess up, I'm not going to make it out there after all am I?
The benefit was it retriggered Kaidin's first (but long lost) love of trains. When born, during that first year, that somewhat inherent trait of the pure passion to 'breathe' trains was something Kaidin fully went through. We fully satiated that topic. Did train exhibtions, museums, rides, resource books, collections... you name it. We followed Thomas nearly around the country! This need to *have* to teach trains reengaged that first love a bit. So that made it a bit more fun. I was truly worried that this would be so redundant that we would have wished we picked a different topic to teach!
Well... the class was not overly exciting, and after having planned for 16 children, only half showed each day. That in itself is quite depressing when you put so much time and effort into it... it's a real lull in your (my) personal excitment.
Oh well. Now recovering from that and trying to tackle the next project of cleaning out the enormous filing cabinet. I figure it's a good time as I had to gather papers, receipts and the like to get the taxes done here in the next few days, so good time to do the purging of documents as well. I put that poor shredder into overdrive (and overheating!) several times today. We headed out to get to playgroup and our poor car was solid frozen. Had to wait several hours to find a jump and then we were off and running, though not with out the panic in my head that the car would die at the grocery store or something.
I tell ya, I'm totally done with this cold weather. I could easily do with out this completely. It's not at all fun to feel the verge of frostbite just walking to your car!
Aside, there is an unschooling conference in Wisconsin on Saturday and I am not feeling the major push to get there. I hate paying for things like that and then backing out. But my drive to get there has diminished quite a bit. It would be a 3 hour trek for me each way, and this past few weeks has been rough. It would be nice to have a quiet weekend... AND, we do have the In-Home conference at the end of the month that I definitly do not want to miss at all. Can you tell I'm just making excuses here? Time to just fess up, I'm not going to make it out there after all am I?
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