Simons Says

During a recent seminar the audience was asked to define what their beliefs are. To right them down to confirm them. Once on paper you're more likely to recall them and feel more committed to them. I thought what a great idea and at the same time what a difficult challenge.

At that moment it reminded me of a conversation I had with relatives during Thanksgiving. A well balanced conversation about value's and religion that was discussed with several people of varying belief systems. It was an excellent conversation.

The point that made the most sense to me was that you don't need to have religion to be respectful to one another. I've always thought this but just never heard it spoken. It doesn't have to be religion based or a system. That's it... Just respect other people's sex, sexuality, religion, politics, time, feelings and even interests... etc.

I thought it was profound and true and something that was worth remembering and using and writing down. I think it is really that simple for modern society.

I don't think I'm a spiritual person. I've never really gotten religion. It seems to create more conflict and dislike than peace. A division. We think knowing right from wrong is simple nature but it's not. It's taught and in those teachings is where the division starts. A universal religion of right from wrong couldn't work. Even though the premise seems perfect.

My beliefs are still working themselves out. But I know that a good start is being respectful of others. Which isn't a religion at all.... it's being a good person. It's sounds easy enough.

To go back to that Thanksgiving conversation for a moment. It dawned on me on why I was able to get something from this conversation I was apart of. The people who were involved in it listened to each other and took turns speaking. No one spoke over one another. No one argued with one another. We all heard each other and listened. My point of view was heard, and I listened to what other's brought to the table as well and took something from it.

I was apart of the conversation and I didn't need to talk over someone to be heard. Which is usually how social conversations have been going the last few years. I instantly remove myself from if I have to interrupt someone or talk over them. If I have to do that I doubt that they are interested in hearing another person speak. And I find if I participate that way I think it encourages that behavior and will ultimately alienate more people who might participate.

If it's a conversation of ideas and thoughts it should be that. I don't think using verbal force to get your point across is the proper art of conversation unless the situation requires aggression.

So is it really so easy to be respectful to others? I think what worked on Thanksgiving is that everyone had a chance to speak and listen. And there were some very strong personalities among the group. But all the participants contributed.

People say that they hate to hear their own voice. "God, do I really sound like that?" "I hate my voice!" If that's true why aren't people talking less and listening more?

Yesterday I played Simon Says at a work function. The facilitator was a Professional Simon. A simple kids game played by about 100 professional adults.

The 3 rules:

1. Don't talk.
2. Don't do anything unless Simon says you can.
3. Listen

This game showed us that listening isn't that easy.

LaSalette Shrine

Last night we visited an amazing holiday light park. It runs during the holiday season is ends Jan 4th. We had no idea what to expect and were pleasantly surprised.

Jon , Joyce, Jack & will joined us to check it out. We met in the parking lot of LaSalette Shrine. The light park is on the grounds of a church. It's a gorgeous park like church in Attleboro. After we bundled up and prepared for the chilly air we walked the park.

It's a Christian church so the lights were predominantly religious. It was spectacular. The decorations were impressive and the property was so fun to explore. The kids loved running around and marveled at the unique lights and sets.

The property is so picturesque. I'm curious to visit it in the spring to see the grounds lush and green and the pond's visited by swans and geese.

This will surely be an annual visit for the holidays!

Happy Holidays!

Wow.
It's been awhile since my last post. We've been busy with the holidays and I just can't seem to pull myself away from Facebook.com.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We traveled up to Santa's Village and spent our annual weekend away with Johanna's side of the family. We love the traditional getaway with them. We got ina trip to Santa's Village which was a blast. Plus it was snowy and winter wonderlandish when we were there. PERFECT!

We've also had some snow of our own since Thanksgiving. We've had 2 sizable snow storms. The first we had easily over a foot of snow. The second was more recent with about 8 inches.



This is the week following Christmas and we all have off. Johanna had about 2 weeks off and I had the week between Christmas and New Years. It's been great spending all this time together asa family. Doing lots of fun activities in and out of the house.

We have a new addition to the family. A gerbil named Hermione (Her-mine-ey). She's Ellie's newest pet. A surprise to her as an after X-mas gift. She's been wanting one but with our holiday travel schedule we weren't able to have Santa deliver it. There's a great pet shop down the street and they helped us pick her out and a cage.



Ellie has recently discovered Harry Potter and loves the character Hermione. Hermione the gerbil has a small white spot on her head. Well, Harry has the scar on his head not Hermione but Ellie determined that the gerbil is a girl and not a boy so she could be Hermione. That's how the name came to be.



Today was a fun day. It's finally not freezing here so we could go ice skating. Providence has a beautiful outdoor rink in it's downtown area. We've been itching to go. Now that Elle is old enough we got her some skates and headed out. We plan to keep at it maybe some classes. She had a good time on the ice and did quite well. She wanted to fall on purpose and sometimes not on purpose. Interestingly enough while saying she couldn't skate all by herself she got her mind off of what she had to do and was able to skate alone. When she didn't think about doing it... she skated without realizing. She got carried away looking at the other kids zipping around.



The rink got busier as the morning went on and Elle's mood dipped just as the recent tempature.
With Johanna's quick thinking we walked over to Citron for lunch. Elle perked right up with some food in her belly and a platter of sorbet. HA! It's vacation!