Sunday, February 27, 2011

Think One and Think Two (a la Suess)

Think One:
It is my contention that with out Good or Evil, you do not have the other. If evil is vanquished, or otherwise disappears everything else is good and there for Is. I am Good, there for I am, or Evil for that matter.

Think Two:
Living perfect, sustainable, green, conscious of the environment is great and something to put effort in, but there is a cost. It may be inconvenient. It may be expensive. It may be good. I recommend doing it to the limit of your abilities. I think this is a search for perfection, therefore a futile and destructive effort on an individual, community or personal level. There is always a better or new way, and when it is discovered, it makes previous efforts detrimental or lacking in worth.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

High Point Low Point

What was your high point for the day? What was your low point? It's a nice exercise. It commemorates a day. It creates a moment of reflection. The kids and I have a bedtime routine that continues to evolve. We no longer pray - regularly. After we do our readings I ask them a series of questions.

Do you want to say a prayer? No. No.

Do you want to be thankful? Yes. No. Then my daughter says she is thankful for her family.

Do you want me to say a prayer? No. No. On occasion one or both may say yes, then I ask them if they would like me to pray for anything particular, then I do or pray generally for each of us.

When they were younger we prayed more. Now we don't. The exercise for prayer, to me, was creating a reflective moment for each of them, and me. I was disappointed they didn't engage in it. Prayer is personal, and may also be private. I began to move on.

Then I asked them one night, out of the blue, to share their high point and low point of the day. They share the mundane aspects of their day with me, but sometimes their reflection speaks volumes. At first, I asked them to share, but I did not. Then I began to share since it didn't seem right to withhold.

The exercise has created moments of lightness. It has relieved stress. It has made me feel connected to my family and my life in a new and better way. I don't think I discovered anything new, but it helped me, so I am sharing. Today is too new, so my high point yesterday was seeing my kids awake before I left for work and my low point was having fits and starts engaging in work.

What was your high point? Low point?