April 2012
55 posts
Day 157(C): Not My Gig
Last night I had a dream. I was late for a concert where I was to perform a jazz trumpet solo with the Harvard Band. I was supposed to be there by 9:15 and it was already 9:00 and first I needed to get to my room to change into my band uniform. After changing I was to head back to the campus where the performance was being held. I knew there was no way I could get there in time, and besides, I was...
Day 157(J): Course Correction
Today I fell into my own mind trap. For several months I have successfully avoided being sucked into my mind trap, so it felt weird to be back in that “old” place where my egoic mind could veer me away from my center. I felt doubt, fear, and limitation. I felt boxed in. My strategic mind was running away at the speed of panic, and it was trying to figure things out. It kept going to the place of...
March 2012
61 posts
Day 156(C): Knowing When it's Enough
I’ve found that one of the benefits of inviting more awareness and consciousness into my life, is gaining a better sense of knowing when it’s enough.
Enough snacking. Enough Internet. Enough analysis.
Enough of whatever it is that I’m doing. Some of our activities have a natural end point or perhaps we don’t need to worry about overdoing them: brushing our teeth, walking the dog,...
Day 156(J): Sweet and Slow
Something rare happened this morning.
After our morning walk, which was somewhat longer than usual, Charles and I decided to have brunch. We were both hungry, it was mid-morning, and we wanted to cook and clean only once (for brunch), rather than twice (for breakfast and lunch). Time flies between the school drop-off and pick-up times for our daughters, and we wanted to be conscious about our...
Day 155(C): Shifting From Analyst to Artist
I could have followed my energy this morning; if I had, I would have finished this blog post by now.
This morning I was fascinated by the big “simulation” which has begun at S and J’s school, called, “Biz Town.” What I found the most interesting is that all the students are required to choose from one of the offered jobs (no determining your own path here!) and the range of jobs is very...
Day 155(J): Choose Curiosity Over Criticism
In addition to quite often seeing the comment, “Jung is very sensitive,” in my school report card, I also remember another common remark from my teachers: “Jung is very cautious and she does not like to take risks, no matter how small.”
Looking back at that time with my grownup lens, I now see my younger self as a sensitive child who feared harsh words and judgmental comments sternly and...
Day 154(C): Shedding Pounds Through Awareness
Forgive me, WiiFit, for I have sinned. It has been 149 days since my last check-in. I have not been counting my calories or working out. All I have managed to do is to walk about an hour a day semi-regularly.
And I’ve lost 14 pounds. And gone down a pants size.
Don’t get me wrong. I am nowhere near the perfect specimen of physical fitness. There’s a lot more I could do to convert more of my fat...
Day 154(J): Magical Co-creation with Life
March 28, 2011, exactly a year ago, was a Monday. I know this because, out of curiosity, I looked at what I wrote in my journal one year ago today. This is what I wrote:
March 28, 2011 (Monday) 6:25 am
New beginning, new chapter of my life.
Stand in your truth, dignity and birthright.
Remember your truth. Regain your dignity. Reclaim your birthright.
I sense my mission in this lifetime is...
Day 153(C): You Can't Force Education
The other day when, as a family, we were discussing the question of “What Kind of School Do We Want?” I posited a thought experiment for S and J.
First, I brought up the fact that they have read volumes and volumes of detailed rules and story backgrounds for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game (D&D) on their own, just for fun. Then I asked them what would happen if I assigned D&D...
Day 153(J): It’s All About the Fit
It is all about the fit; whether one is seeking a home where one belongs, or joining one’s own tribe that shares similar values. In order to know whether there is a fit though, we need to know first who we are.
If I didn’t know who I was, I would have to resort to trial and error, trying out many different places to discover whether there is a fit. I would need a lot of luck to get it right with...
Day 152(C): Harvard High Honors--Low Learning
I graduated from Harvard. Twice! The first time, I graduated from Harvard College “magna cum laude” or “with high honors.” Woohoo! Go me!
Right?
Actually, no. I don’t feel that way. Why not? Why don’t those achievements mean anything to me? Why have I always hid the fact that I graduated from Harvard? I think it’s because getting good grades and prestigious degrees were all part of a package of...
Day 152(J): Constructive Criticism
Yesterday, I wrote that children are the consumers of education, yet they do not have any voice to provide “user feedback” on their school experiences in a meaningful way. Some may even think that it is a radical idea to invite school children to engage in dialogue with their teachers and school administrators, who are providing educational services to them, so that these service providers can...
Day 151(C): Fierce Friends
Today we had another session of the monthly Dungeons & Dragons game I run for our daughters and three of their friends. Their characters had a number of obstacles to overcome including a couple of battles, healing themselves from a disease which could have turned them into what are essentially zombies, and figuring out how to sleep safely in a hostile underground crypt.
What amazed me was how...
Day 151(J): Children as Consumers of Education
Our daughter J told me and Charles last week after her teacher/parent conference that she did not see the point of teachers’ keeping track of her turning in her homework. In her mind, if she does the homework, then she is the one benefiting from doing it. Not only that, her test results will reflect whether she did her homework or not, if teachers need a way to gauge whether she is learning the...
Day 150(C): I Wish I Had Done It My Way
One particular bee which buzzes in my educational bonnet is the way in which I learned math. Or, to be more precise, the way I didn’t learn math. As I wrote before, I was not a stellar math student and that convinced me to give up my aspirations to seriously pursue physics in college. I would be exaggerating if I said that I regret not studying more than a semester of college physics, because I’ve...
150(J): Learning a Life of Alignment
“You can’t take somebody who’s been told ‘Don’t be creative’ for twelve or more years and then say, ‘Okay, now you’re done, you’ve got your education – go out and be creative!’ Because they don’t have the foggiest idea what it’s about.” ~ Daniel Greenberg, “Let’s Design a School”
Ain’t that the truth! I know it because I am a product of eleven years of this country’s...
Day 149(C): Old Tooth, New Tooth
I had an odd dream last night. It wasn’t a surreal dream. In fact almost everything that happened in the dream was completely plausible. I was exactly as I am right now: the same age, height, weight. I was married to Jung and our daughters S and J were also exactly as they are now. But as I was talking to my family I felt something strange in my mouth. It was hard and I didn’t want to swallow it...
Day 149(J): Enjoy Life’s Flow
It has been an intense week. Due to the school teacher/parent conferences this week on Wednesday and Thursday followed by the teachers’ “In Service” day on Friday, S and J had no school yesterday and today. So, after we met with their teachers on Wednesday morning, all four of us wholeheartedly welcomed the reprieve that was granted for the remainder of this week.
As if the weather read our...
Day 148(C+J): Rejuvenation Haiku
Thursday family day:
Walking, groceries, books and play.
Rejuvenation.
Day 147(C): Children Also Deserve Respect
Today we had our teacher conferences at S and J’s school. As we expected, our daughters are doing fine in their schoolwork, and yet I came home from the conferences completely drained. As Jung has mentioned before, during these Spring conferences the idea was to have the students lead the discussion. All the teachers had the students prepare in different ways, but I found it interesting that for...
147(J): Save Children’s Integrity and Intuition
My daughter S observed after today’s teacher/parent conference, quite remarkably considering her age, that it was “all for show.” Parents were supposed to show that they are proud of their children. Teachers were supposed to show that they are doing a fabulous job teaching their students. And students were supposed to say nice things about their teachers. As for me, I am simply relieved that the...
Day 146(C): Standardized Failure
We received this year’s results from S and J’s standardized tests. According to the results, S is struggling with adding and subtracting whole numbers. On the other hand, she’s a whiz at adding and subtracting fractions and decimal numbers not to mention her solid scores in multiplication and division.
Obviously, S must be proficient at adding and subtracting whole numbers if she can perform the...
Day 146(J): Stop the Insanity!
Upon arriving home from school today, S confirmed (unbeknownst to her) my answer to the question that I raised in my post yesterday.
My question (regarding my daughters’ education) was: At what point does the risk of staying put with the status quo exceed the risk of embracing the unknown, uncertain, off-the-map possibility?”
My answer was: The risk of their golden compass [a/k/a “intuition”]...
Day 145(C): My Life-Long Battle with Math
“I have nothing against your Mr. Bockel, but that kind of problem has nothing whatever to do with what I’m interested in. Do you want to know something? Most genuine mathematicians are bad at sums. Besides, they have no time to waste on them. That’s what pocket calculators are for.”
—The Number Devil by Hans Magnus Enzensberger
As I wrote about before, in college, when it was time to...
Day 145(J): Honor the Golden Compass
S and J’s school offers a week-long class trip away from home in April as part of their science curriculum. Since the deadline for the student’s commitment to participate and parental consent are this Wednesday, we asked our daughters to confirm their interests in going on this trip. They had their first class trip to a different location last year, which was a bit shorter than this year’s trip,...
Day 144(C): Not-Just-For-Profit
There are many words which Jung and I feel are central to Soul Play Family. To list a few (in no particular order): awareness, consciousness, action, creativity, joy, soul, authenticity, humanity, integrity, art, beauty, acceptance and diversity.
An overriding theme in all of those words, and in our writing, is oneness. We believe that we live in a world where everything and everyone is much more...
Day 144(J): No One is Extra in Our World
As Charles wrote previously, he and I have been reading Seth Godin’s ebook, Stop Stealing Dreams. In this 30,000 word manifesto, Seth Godin expresses his views on the question of “What is school for?” and puts forth his call to action in his usual insightful and incisive way: “One thing is certain: if we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’ve been getting. Our...
Day 143(C): The School of Your Dreams
Sitting at the kitchen table with my coffee, I look out the window at the precipitation coming down. I wonder what to call it. It’s coming down faster than snow, and yet it’s whiter and slower than freezing rain. Is it, “snain?”
I’m not sure what it is, but it’s fun to watch something unusual and out of the ordinary. Jung often marvels at the food we eat, wondering at the miracle of such diverse...
Day 143(J): Gratitude Abounds
At breakfast, it was snowing outside. Beautiful, white snow flakes were dancing outside, as we shared the gluten-free banana muffins that Charles baked, and a plate full of apple slices and orange wedges. I marveled at how food of all different varieties, that we consume for our nourishment, comes from the Earth. Gratitude abounds.
Charles read the draft of his blog post for today to S and J...
Day 142(C): Do the Energy Dance!
When I began writing my blog post about Prismatic Art, I knew I wanted to use that as an example of awareness fueling action. However, even though I knew what I wanted to write about and why I wanted to write about it, I had a lot of trouble getting started. What I eventually determined was that I was stuck because I wasn’t dancing with my energy.
That day I was in a bit of a funk. It wasn’t...
Day 142(J) - Cultivating Happiness
“Training your brain to be positive is not so different from training your muscles at the gym. Recent research on neuroplasticity—the ability of the brain to change even in adulthood—reveals that as you develop new habits, you rewire the brain.” ~ Shawn Anchor
A Harvard Business Review article containing the above passage came across my screen via Happiness Initiative’s Facebook page feed. The...
Day 141(C): Unorthodox
If you’ve read even a fraction of our posts, then you know that practicing awareness has become central to Jung’s and my life. In addition to being aware of our own language, feelings, and actions, we try to “hold a mirror” up to each other when necessary. What this means is that when one of us seems to have become unaware of our words or behavior, the other will “reflect back” what we’re doing in...
Day 141(J): Being Written by (vs. Writing) My Life...
When Charles and I started this Soul Play Family 365 Experiment, we wanted to chronicle our journey — of exploring, experimenting, experiencing, and expanding our lives as we seek to create work that will feed both our souls and our family — for the first 365 days after I ended my corporate employment, and share our journey publicly. That was the main objective.
After having been at...
Day 140(C): Prismatic Art
Last week I saw something in my Twitter stream that caught my eye: “Prismatic Art,” a fantasy hero art project which is headed for Kickstarter. Not only is it a fantasy hero art project, according to one of the people spearheading the project, Tracy Hurley, “Prismatic Art Collection is a free library of art representing heroes of all backgrounds.” I knew that S and J (as well as Jung) would be...
Day 140(J): It's Time to Link Life and Education
S was not in a good mood this morning. She didn’t want to go to school. One of her complaints involved an assignment she was given, “to write about what was wrong with her.” My curiosity was piqued. When I asked her to talk more about it, she said she needed to write about her “shortcomings” in each class to prepare for next week’s teacher/parent conferences. Charles and I were informed that the...
Day 139(C): Mr. Fixit
Take the time to be sure that whatever it is you are doing, especially if you are doing it to yourself, is amplifying inherent genius, talent, and power, not attenuating it.
I wrote the above in my post yesterday because it is a lesson which has taken me a long time to learn, and I have repeatedly seen first-hand examples of how important it is. All the same, I have still not yet fully...
Day 139(J): Finding Kind in Courage and Beauty
The documentary film Finding Kind about which I wrote my post yesterday revealed to me how much we need powerful and healthy feminine energy, images and voices in our society. Not only for girls and women, but also for boys and men, so that all of us can enjoy a community where love, wholeness, and vitality thrive, while we banish the fear, shame and blame that are rampant in many places,...
Day 138(C): Don't "fix" it, amplify it!
As Jung mentioned last Thursday, early last week I had the opportunity to play on a 1922 Steinway Model O piano which had just come into a local piano dealer. Their piano technician hadn’t had a chance to tune, voice or regulate the piano yet, but the saleswoman there thought I might like to give it a try.
I had been at the dealer for a while by this point, trying different pianos and I thought I...
Day 138(J): Ignorance is Dangerous
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Last Friday evening, March 9th, S and J’s school had a parent screening of the documentary, Finding Kind, in which two filmmakers (Lauren Parsekian and Molly Thompson) travel the country interviewing women and girls about their lives and experiences. The film reveals their...
Day 137(C): Sunday Night Haiku
This day, rich with play, Ended too soon for us all. Weekends are too short!
Day 137(J): Juicier Life
I feel that weekends are too short. I may have felt it all the more so today because we “lost” one hour due to the start of daylight savings time. After dinner, all four of us, Charles, S, J and I, expressed our unanimous sentiment: “We wish we had a three-day weekend.”
Come to think of it, it’s been like this every weekend for the past few months or more.
I recall having the same sentiment on...
Day 136(C): What a Difference Passion Makes!
When I last wrote about J’s voice lessons, it was to recount how she came to me to learn “Four” while I was practicing it myself on the piano. At the time I wrote about how this was a shift for her because in the past she resisted “studying” singing, preferring to just sing along with recordings and learn songs that way.
Today, I felt that she took another leap forward in her appreciation of how...
Day 136(J): Whale Rider Haiku
Watched Whale Rider film: Transformational story. Recommend highly!
Day 135(C): Pro-Respect Haiku
Finding Kind confirmed, More than anti-bullying, I am pro-respect.
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Day 135(J): It’s All Fun and Games
You may know by now that Charles, S and J are avid Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) role playing game aficionados. But me? I am the “black sheep” of the family. I have written about this topic occasionally, and I even confessed in one post that “I cannot get into the game for the life of me.” That may still be true, but I am learning about the Dungeons and Dragons world with much more gusto than I...
Day 134(C): Step 2 is Action
When Jung and I embarked on our Soul Play Family 365 Experiment, we did so with the faith that we have a lot more choice in the quality of our lives than we have been led to believe. We believed that we could live life in congruence with our own souls. We believed that the traditional notions of “That’s just the way it is,” “work is work,” and financial security trumps the dreams of the soul were...
Day 134(J): My Heart’s Song
“I grabbed the opportunity to play on a 1922 Steinway Model O today. ‘O’ is right! I forgot what real Steinway bass sounds like! #swoon”
This is what Charles wrote on his Facebook wall a couple of days ago. I’m hoping he’ll write about it sometime in a blog post, so I don’t want to steal his thunder. However, I will say that at home he went on and on about how much JOY he got out of playing on...
Day 133(C): We Are the Citizens
For the past ten days, Jung and I have been reading Seth Godin’s ebook, Stop Stealing Dreams. It’s been amazing to read in his words so much of what we’ve been talking about regarding our daughters’ education. As we’ve been investigating our children’s current school environment, we have come to many of the same conclusions that Seth Godin has.
I don’t want to rehash our journey with the school....
Dayt 133(J): Hello, My Other Selves!
I woke up this morning with the idea that everyone alive is an embodiment or manifestation of different parts of myself. It may be because I’ve been immersed in my vision of “ONE world, many voices” lately. At any rate, this notion of each of us being a fractal of the universe, and thus each one of us being both whole, and a part of the larger whole at the same time, led me to see myself as not...
Day 132(C): We Are the People
Earlier this week a childhood friend wrote on her Facebook wall that there isn’t any strong political party in the United States which represents her views. She described the third party she’d like to create and received some rather positive feedback in the comments.
It was interesting timing because earlier that day Jung, S, J and I all watched a short series of videos explaining why, in...
