" Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself."
William Martin, The Parent's Tao Te Ching:
Ancient Advice for Modern Parents
It reminded me of the following quote, which I have always loved:
“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full or wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later year…the alienation from the sources of our strength.”
― Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder
Autumn, the most beautiful season of the year, is the time to shore up our senses of wonder and marvel, to make them so indestructible, they can outlast the upcoming winter and overcome our alienation and disconnection with the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment