I've been totally engrossed with online forums and stuff today. The kids and I haven't done much together today. I'm learning a lot, though, and solidifying my decision to unschool and even helping my husband to see its merits.
I've been thinking a lot about living by principles and I really believe that's the way to live. It was always the way I thought as a child and even as a new mother. Things fell into categories like unkind, honest, love, hate, respect.
As a young person I was full of ideals and ideas which over time became rules and gospel, unyielding and unthinking. We have to focus on the principles of joyful life. Making up rules is like putting a band aid on an injury but not finding out what's causing the injury in the first place. There will never be enough rules and enforcement to make someone believe in a principle. In fact, that person is probably going to behave in the exact opposite way because they are rebelling again the imposed law.
I can give my children 80 rules that relate to loving each other, but that won't make them love each other. It might make them resent each other. We can talk about what it means to show love to one another and demonstrating it by doing loving things for them will make them want to love.
My god, there have been so many things that I have taken for granted. How many times, as a child, did I hear, you have to love her she's your sister? How many times have I said that to my children? How many times have I said that to myself? None of us has to love anybody. We chose to love one another. We chose to show love to one another.
I love my children because I chose to cherish their precious, precarious lives on this planet. I cherish them because human beings deserve to be cherished. They are special in this enormous universe because they can appreciate the enormity of it. They can understand their smallness in it. They are capable of appreciating what a valuable jewel they are amidst the sparkling jewels of the stars. We are such small, insignificant little lives, here on this Earth, with such magnificent worth. It's our fragility and our power that makes us so valuable. What other creature in the Universe can do what we do or create what we create?
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Don't be too hard on yourself for getting engrossed in online forums (or anything else for that matter!). You probably learned a lot on those forums and that's part of unschooling--you get to learn as well. :)
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