"The world insists on achievement and progress
and it is full of enmity and strife.
Can you see all this and still help your children
maintain their trust and hope and peace?
Can you accept the world as it is,
yet live according to a different standard?
Can you let your children see
a way of living
that transforms,
heals,
nurtures,
and loves?
If you complain about politics,
and gripe about taxes,
and stew about the sorry state of things
your children will learn to whine instead of laugh.
If you can see in every moment
a chance to live,
and to accept,
and to appreciate,
your children will transform the world."
Along with my gradual self-acceptance has come an understanding that to accept the way things are in life and in the world is not necessarily to condone them. Working toward change is a process during which I become equipped to deal with things as they are so that I can have deeper insight into how to change them as needed. In my experience this happens only when I am willing to deal with forces beyond my control, as well as truly recognize what I have (or should have) control over and how to take that control gracefully. In parenting, as my responsibilities increase along with my need for self-control, my desire to control anything outside myself lessens. When something happens that provokes, shames, or hurts me, bringing me back to a less empowered state or time in my life, I can remember how far I've come and how deeply I've transformed myself, so I can continue to help repair the world around me.
and it is full of enmity and strife.
Can you see all this and still help your children
maintain their trust and hope and peace?
Can you accept the world as it is,
yet live according to a different standard?
Can you let your children see
a way of living
that transforms,
heals,
nurtures,
and loves?
If you complain about politics,
and gripe about taxes,
and stew about the sorry state of things
your children will learn to whine instead of laugh.
If you can see in every moment
a chance to live,
and to accept,
and to appreciate,
your children will transform the world."
Along with my gradual self-acceptance has come an understanding that to accept the way things are in life and in the world is not necessarily to condone them. Working toward change is a process during which I become equipped to deal with things as they are so that I can have deeper insight into how to change them as needed. In my experience this happens only when I am willing to deal with forces beyond my control, as well as truly recognize what I have (or should have) control over and how to take that control gracefully. In parenting, as my responsibilities increase along with my need for self-control, my desire to control anything outside myself lessens. When something happens that provokes, shames, or hurts me, bringing me back to a less empowered state or time in my life, I can remember how far I've come and how deeply I've transformed myself, so I can continue to help repair the world around me.
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