Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is a 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.
From The Parent’s Tao Te Ching by William Martin
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<3 it.
Teaching children to be empathetic – this is the job, I agree. How does it happen that they stop feeling separate from human suffering but feeling a part of the world?
Thanks for the wonderful quote.
Just lovely, S – and a reminder that I need to hear today. And every day. I don’t know this book, but I think I’d like to.
“The wonderand the marvel of an ordinary life” — so simple, yet so beautiful and complicated.
What a beautiful and important thing to remember!
This is lovely. Essentials.
Wow… love this. We so often strive for extraordinary, but really, the ordinary, the simplicity, the basics, are most important.
That is lovely.