Tag: Personal Growth
Book Review – The Too Precious Child: Letting Go of the Super-Parent Syndrome
The Too Precious Child was written by Dr. Lynne Williams, Dr. Henry Berman, and Louisa Rose. It has been a mainstay in my tool kit for helping parents with a variety of issues. I consider it to be one of the most important books busy parents in our culture can read, particularly if they are striving for strong parenting skills. If you answer yes to any of these questions, this book is for you.
- As a parent, have you vowed never to let your child lack for anything?
- Did you have your first child at or beyond the age of thirty?
- Were there obstacles to conceiving your child?
- Was your child adopted or premature?
- Does it bother you when your child is bored, messy, or less than an A student?
- Are you a single parent?
- Is your child artistically, athletically, or intellectually gifted?
- Do you always put your children’s needs first? Before your mate’s? Before your own?
It looks like this book is only available through second hand retailers, but is worth the search.
Book Review – Spirit Woman: The Teachings of the Shields
I’m not sure when I purchased the book, or how long it had been on my shelf before I finally got around to reading it. It was probably sitting there for quite a while. I have a habit of letting books call to me at the time of sale, but not necessarily reading thenm promptly.
Spirit Woman, by Lynn Andrews, was actually written as a sequel to Medicine Woman but it easily stands on its own. Lynn describes her teachings from Agnes Whistling Elk and Ruby Plenty Chiefs through the spiritual tool of medicine shields.
Lynn’s education is definitely “experiential” rather than a lecture format that we are so used to in suburban educational systems. Lynn’s teachers set up situations that required much of her beyond simple demonstrations of skill or knowledge. These learning experiences challenged her to become something different and to become aware of her own abilities, fears, and constricted beliefs.
The author’s writing style allows you to feel at times as if you are sitting at the table, experiencing the darkness, or knowing the joy. It is amazing to realize that this is a true story. During each chapter I questioned whether or not I could have done the things that Lynn did. I wonder, could you?
Human Kindness
Although I had promised myself that things would be different this year, I found myself standing at UPS with packages to ship with less than an hour before the cost would rise substantially if I wanted them to arrive before Christmas. As you might imagine, the store was packed. To my right was a woman filling out the paperwork to ship a package to her daughter who is stationed in the Middle East for the United States Air Force. She mentioned it quietly but the person behind the counter repeated some of the information to verify accuracy, and another worker got involved while trying to expedite things.
Because the worker was also trying to take care of my three packages while helping the mother of our service member, there were several short periods where I needed to wait. Actually, I’m glad I did.
The man to my left was shipping something large, but finished his transaction quickly. Before he left, he handed money to the clerk and gestured that it was to help pay the cost of the shipping to the Middle East. Then he quietly left. He said nothing directly to the mother.
I was still waiting when the mother was given the total cost for her shipping, then the clerk advised her of the man’s generosity and deducted his gift from her total and shared with her the man’s statement of gratitude for her daughter’s service to our country. She cried. The sales clerk cried. I got a bit misty myself.
It is easy to bemoan the lack of civility and caring in society today but that would be a mistake. It is still there. There are still people who demonstrate human kindness. I’m now challenged that if I’m not seeing it in others, I need to act it out myself. I know that the rest of that day I was just a little happier, a little nicer, and a little more hopeful.