Het lezersblog is een groepsblog van inspirerende, gepassioneerde mensen uit verschillende landen en verschillende beroepsgroepen. Iedereen wordt van harte uitgenodigd zijn of haar standpunt of mening te geven over de zaken die hem/haar het meest ter harte gaan door te reageren op een blog. De dialoog kan beginnen!
The main thing I love about unschooling my kids is that they have the opportunity to try out many different things at their own pace. I love the idea of them discovering who they are and what they love to do. They do not have to start and stop activities when someone else tells them to. If they start something and hate it, they stop. They don't have to stick it out or finish what they started. I don't want them to learn that the world is a negative place, I want them to learn that they don't have to do things that make them miserable and unhappy. I hear people saying, “but they will have to learn that lesson!” Will they? Read more...
About a two weeks ago, we found ourselves in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was one of those days that I'll never forget. Read more...
Through reviews of her lovely books, I have become email friends with one of our national treasures, Ruth Gendler. Part of the service she performs for humanity is in our schools. She brings her artistry into classrooms and inspires the talents and imaginations of our youth who, in my opinion, sorely need it.
One of Ruth’s delicious books is called The Book of Qualities
Several years ago, I wrote about my friend Ichinohe, the healer. Since that essay appeared, my beloved friend has gone through many profound changes. One time, when I went for a massage, he said, “I know my body very well. There is something wrong with me. I must go for a check-up.” And sure enough, that investigation revealed a beautiful, perfectly formed spiral pattern of teeny cells spread out across the lining of his intestines. Cancer. When he told me about it, he said, “The doctor was amazed. He had never seen anything like it. And indeed, it was magnificent. It looked like the galaxies. It formed a perfect, balanced arrangement.”
I personally felt that orderliness came from Ichinohe’s years of meditation and deep spiritual attunement. But why cancer? Why something so lethal for someone who had devoted his life to healing others? Read more...
As the title states, we found ourselves yesterday in Ukiah, California, blending old world tradition with street realities by way of two school presentations within one event day.
The night before we’d time-traveled back 3,000 years to sleep in ancient China at the Buddhist Community called 10,000 Buddhas. We were lulled to sleep by the distant calls of peacocks looking for their partner to sleep for the night in the trees above where we parked. It’s the craziest feeling, as we instantly were transported backwards thousands of years when we entered the compound’s massive wooden gates, guarding what felt like an ancient, sacred place. Check out the pictures! Read more...
At least three mornings a week, Samantha (my spouse) and I go to the Colombo Swimming Club, a quiet private place for some exercise and a swim. I enjoy this morning routine and use the back garden to stretch, jog and use the bars. However, over the last two years this routine has been disturbed by a battle that I have with a bunch of crows, which, I presume, are not happy about me entering their space.
It all began when one bird attacked me while I exercised. I then hit back with stones and shooed them away and thought it was sorted. Not so. The next morning was a shocker. As I entered the garden I felt a bad vibe in the air and sure enough there must have been over a hundred crows - they were waiting for me. They got into a noisy formation and dived at me. I have been in some major scrapes in my life with fellow humans, but this scared the hell out of me. The gang leader looked mean, would sharpen its beak on the wire it was on and swoop down on me with others following. I saved myself from a major assault by running for cover under a roof. I reluctantly skipped my exercise routine and jumped in the pool in dismay, but the gang agitated the entire time I was there. It took me a few days to get back to the club again so I thought the dust would have settled, but not at all. This time there were not so many, but they kept diving down at me in intervals, so I had to get aggressive. That morning I got my exercise shouting, running at them and throwing rocks to take control of my space. Read more...
Maeve (rhymes with rave), the magnificent Magdalen, is back! She is ever so welcome.
The third novel of The Maeve Chronicles, Bright Dark Madonna
In the Spring of 2007, I was invited to a local hotel in Iraq where some Iranian musician-friends were relaxing after a big concert they had just given. I was asked to bring my guitar and a nice meet-and-greet erupted into a Western-gospel-folk-meets-Iranian-folk-orchestra explosion in the lobby of the hotel. While belting out Eastern versions of Western standards, I took note of the Iranian tar player's shoes - a white pair of hand-knit works of art that screamed "Persian rock star." The band took me to buy my own pair of these famous shoes the very next day. And thus began my fascination with the klash. Read more...
World peace begins with our children. Emotionally healthy children grow into emotionally healthy adults. Emotionally healthy children learn inner peace. Children that grow up feeling inner peace become peaceful adults. To begin the process, we need to make sure that all children grow up with positive messages streaming through their psyches. This doesn’t mean praising children and giving them affirmations that don’t come across as being authentic. Children can feel whether or not a person is being authentic with them. For this reason, the verbal messages and the non-verbal messages are equally important. We can "tell" our children how wonderful they are, but if we are not in the moment with them, listening to them and really being attentive to their needs, they receive an entirely different message. Read more...
As part of the process of producing the reading of PeaceWomen, we needed a program that had the pictures of the Laureates. We also needed to give credit to the actors who were donating their time to honor World Theatre Day and these women. Because the pictures took up so much space, we had to truncate their bios, so I asked each one to describe their relationship to Tufts, and then to finish this sentence:
To me, peace is . . .
Twelve actors plus one director plus me, the playwright, equaled 14 completely different answers! How could it not? Read more...
