Aldous Huxley said, “ Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.” Let’s prove him wrong!
February 27, 2012
Rules and parenting go hand in hand and all too often conversations on rules can easily sound like a sermon or a warning. As children get older they get very good at seeing one of these conversations coming and they tune us out. They have heard it before—and often they have heard it multiple times. One antidote to this dilemma is to use a story to deliver a message. A story can jump-start a conversation on a topic that becomes a genuine exchange of ideas rather than a list of do’s and don’ts.
A recent article in the NYT, “Time, Distance, And Clarity” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/opinion/bruni-homecomings-and-regrets.html brought this home to me when I read “ You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” Appreciating the day-to-day little things right in front of you is a life skill. All too often, we pass by the special, memorable little things with the thought that we will “take it in” later… when we have more time. The truth is that “later” morphs into “not happening.”
Adults can learn from children who live in the moment. The Way To Start a Day by Byrd Baylor is a book that shows how the every day activity of greeting a new day can become a sacred activity. Taking each day for granted or welcoming each day is a choice we all make. Through few words and pictures, The Way To Start a Day show people all over the world greeting a new day with in their own unique way.
It is a book for young and old and might just be the book to get us all back on track for appreciating the moment.
Happy Valentine’s Day to the Oxford English Dictionary!
February 14, 2012
In honor of Valentine’s Day I just received an email with selected poems for every relationship under the sun. As much as I enjoyed many of the poems, I was pleased to see that my Valentine Greeting, to the Oxford English Dictionary is one of a kind! The OED recently released its 2011 edition and […]
Good readers practive “Radical Hospitality”
February 7, 2012
I just had the pleasure of working in Cleveland Ohio and I met the extraordinary idea of radical hospitality, a term used to describe the welcome policy of Trinity Cathedral, The Episcopal Church in downtown Cleveland. I attended an evening program and had the pleasure of studying with some members of the church community along […]
Black History Month has become a fixture in the school calendar year and consequently it dulls expectations. Red Tails, the movie that tells the story of the Tuskegee Airmen might just be the antidote to that dullness.
February 6, 2012
Black History Month originated in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson as Negro History Week. The month of February was selected in deference to Frederick Douglass (1818) and Abraham Lincoln who were both born in the month. Red Tails: An Epic Story of the Tuskegee Airmen, a movie by George Lucas, is a fictional tale inspired […]
Once upon at time books with black children at their center were seldom published.
January 31, 2012
In the spirit of Black History Month which happens in February, lets celebrate an achievement which we could easily take for granted today. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Erza Jack Keat’s Caldecott winner The Snowy Day, the first full-color picture book to feature an African-American protagonist. The story captures Peter’s wonderment of a […]
