Kid's Play - A Little Girl's Breaking News...

This post is borrowed from my friend Karen Tan's Facebook posting. It is reproduced here with her permission (with very minor corrections to typo errors and formality):


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This is my daughter's most original way of breaking the news that she didn't do too well in her Chinese language test. She breaks into a song at bedtime. Completely improvised. 

"O Mama, your eyes are as round as the ... zeroes that I get on my Chinese paper... 

O Mama, your eyeballs are as crossed as the "x"es that my teacher marked on my test paper ....

O Mama, your lips are as red as the red ink that fills the pages of my test paper ....

O Mama, your cheeks are as fat as the scary Chinese test paper that I didn't like sitting for ....

O Mama, your ears are as wrong as the words that I wrote wrongly when I should have written something else .... 

O Mama, your legs as as long as the cane that my teachers threatens us with ....

O Mama, your hair is as black as my teacher's face when she returned me my test paper ...

and in her soprano finale ... 

O MAMAaaaaaa.......!! I love you SOOOOOoo!!!!"
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Wouldn't anyone forgive this little angel easily?!! :)

Kids Play 17 - Belief

Vic (12 years old) believes that he will be super rich. He believes that it is already happening and the path ahead of him is already laid. He shows enthusiasm for everything and therefore always get what he wants. As to why he thinks like this, it surely beats me. He is just a natural optimist. He told me he is going to make money and love people.

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The other day, he told me he is going to be rich selling oxygen to space going vessels, as fuel. He will make CO2-O2 converter machines, and they will have to buy from him because rockets need oxygen, as fuel. Though I know rockets run on hydrogen rather than oxygen and also that he will have to face the tedium of commercialising such technologies, among many other problems, I encouraged him with his dream.

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I know that with a strong belief, he will overcome all associated problems and also will sort out the technicalities and find out that he needs hydrogen instead, or may be he will discover a technology that uses oxygen. We don't know what may come in the house that the children of today will live in, in their future. We can't even see this house in our dreams now. So what we can do is only to encourage them to do their best and believe in what they want to do.

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Actually, if you look into it, it is not very far off from the way religious people place their absolute trust in God, in whatever they do. Replace the word 'God' with 'Self' and the concept is identical.

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This is very different from how I was brought up. For some reason, Chinese parents love to discourage their children and make them feel small. Subconsciously, they are transfering their fears to their children. May be to them, it is also a way of protecting their children - that just in case they do not make it, it won't be so hard on the kids, since they have been 'forewarned'. So, unless such parents have very strong minded kids, they would succeed in cowing the children's dreams into oblivion.

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That's probably one reason why I had such a bad temper. I had many ideas and things that I love to do as a kid, but was always discouraged. Even after I had my driver's licence, I was consistently spoken into fear about the dangers of driving. And eventually, they succeeded, and I almost got into a serious accident, which becomes a self-fulfiling prophecy that proved that driving a motor vehicle was dangerous.

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We must always be careful with what we burn into the minds of people, especially young minds. Once burned in, they will be conditioned to be fearful instead of feeling the omnipresent and mighty glory to succeed, which is our true nature. So nowadays, I choose my words carefully when I speak. I would always ask, "Does this encourage Love or Fear?"

Spiritual Parenting 3a - Voice of Authority

I have just finished reading Mike George's book "Don't Get Mad, Get Wise". Click here
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What I learn from the book is that nobody can make me angry, other than myself; and that it is silly to get angry over something for a long time, sometimes years, over something someone did for 5 minutes. If I am angry, it means I am turbulent inside to start off with and the turbulence became active because I allowed it to be so.

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In it, it says that parents who get angry with their children amounts to making their children feeling guilty and shameful of themselves, resulting in low self esteem. Where the low self-esteem persists, the child will grow up as ill-adjusted adults, some even committing crime. That's why I think anger does not solve anything. Actually, this inflicting of guilt and shame extends to our relationship with adults too, when we get angry with them.

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I think anger is fear motivated. In the absence of anger and fear, peacefulness reign.

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Some quotes from the book:

Page 64

Peace is the state of being, which shapes a state of mind, which generates positive and focused thinking, which are expressed as proactive attitudes and behaviours.

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The presence of peace means the absence of emotional disturbance, and when there is emotional freedom it means the inner eye is not distracted by the world outside or by memories of the world inside.

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page 75

To go with the grain of truth about peace is to realise your peace is not just for you, it is also for the world... when you realise this, you will also recognise how the vibration of peacefulness radiates outwards. When you consciously realise your peace to others and to the world, that's when you will feel its power.

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page 80

Your peace is unquestionably yours, it is you, but unless you channel its power and give it away, it will disappear... when you give it away, it increases in depth and therefore quality.

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In the example of Hadri and his mother getting angry with each other, the father in contrast was peaceful and radiated the peace to both of them. In the end peace and normality resumed in the family. See Spiritual Parenting 3 - Voice of Authority

Spiritual Parenting 4 - Toys

Boys outgrow toys. Their toys get more expensive every time they outgrow the old ones. Soon they will outgrow their parents. In time, there will be somebody else in their life that will be more important to them than mum and dad. Such is the progression of bringing up children. Such is the way they too, like their parents, will walk their own path and their own journey in spirituality.

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Transformer robots.

Now in a heap! :)

Spiritual Parenting - Nurturing Spiritual Growth For Children

Dear Parents,

The purpose of this 1-day seminar on Spiritual Parenting is to provide you with action-based ideas for raising happy, kind children who remain connected to their spirits and their families. By intending to become a spiritual parent, not only will your children flourish, but your own soul will be fed.

We are trying to be good parents and give our children all they need to develop into well-rounded and successful adults. We may, however, be missing the very core of our child's being, his spirituality. Spirituality is the base from which grows self-esteem, values, and a sense of belonging. It is what gives life direction and meaning.

Spiritual Parenting occurs when we expand our awareness to include our children’s vivid inner lives. When we approach our kids as grand spiritual beings housed in rapidly changing bodies we are parenting spiritually. Spiritual parenting is an authentic, honest way of interacting with our children day to day.

Spiritual Parenting isn’t a scientific approach to parenting or a formula to follow but rather an attitude and consciousness to acknowledge, connect, love, and honor your child’s very being.

When children are spiritually parented, their self-esteem increases, they feel empowered, they have a belief system to count on, they feel connected to something greater than themselves, they have hope, they articulate their dreams and follow them, they begin to ask of themselves: “What is it I might give?” rather than “What is it I might get?”

You have the potential to live a balanced, alive, joy-filled life. You can make a difference in your children’s futures, manifest your own dreams, and create a soulful home.

I invite you to attend this life-changing seminar to discard the burden of perfect parenting but explore the exhilarating honesty and joy that comes through nourishing your child’s spirit and seeking balance in your life.

With warmest best wishes,
Aaron
Dr. T. Aaron Lim

Registration

Don’t wait another minute to live a more joyful, prosperous and abundant life. Call and register NOW! Seats Are Limited - So Do Register Early !

Date : Saturday May 26, 2007
Time: 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM
Venue: Parkroyal on Kitchener Road

181 Kitchener Road , Singapore 208533
( formerly known as New Park Hotel, nearest MRT Farrer Park Station )

Contact: Finella Lim @ 98359197 (mobile)
Email: treeoflifesg@gmail.com
Contribution: S$70 per pax ( a sumptuous lunch and tea breaks are included )

( All surplus arising from this seminar will be donated to Bodhi Fellowship’s Miracle Children’s Home as its support of orphaned / unprivileged children in Batam, Indonesia; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Kashmir, India; Cuzco, Peru and Bedong, Malaysia)