On Parenting

To trust who our child is, and not who we think he should be or what the world wants him to be - that perhaps is the single greatest gift a parent can give. Faith in our child's own destiny, in the destiny of his soul - that's the one ingredient that will make the biggest difference in our parenting....

It is not enough just to value who they are; we must also get in their way when they don't want us to, and get out of their way when we don't want to. We must fumble around with that delicate balance between control and leniency, fear and trust, holding on and letting go, until the parenting adventure is over. The good news and the bad news is that it's never over.

Excerpt from Broken Open
by Elizabeth Lesser

Photo: Alex, Joanna, Mitch & Shayne
Christmas, 2008
Richfield, WI

The Holy Longing

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Tell a wise person, or else keep silent.
Because the massman will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive,
what longs to be burned to death.

In the calm water of the love-nights,
where you were begotten, where you have begotten,
a strange feeling comes over you
when you see the silent candle burning.

Now you are no longer caught
in the obsession with darkness,
and a desire for higher lovemaking
sweeps you upward.

Distance does not make you falter,
now, arriving in magic, flying,
and finally, insane for the light,
you are the butterfly and you are gone.

And so long as you haven't experienced
this: to die and so to grow,
you are only a troubled guest
on the dark earth.

The Great Truth

The small truth may be that you are sick today, or have PMS, or a cold, or feel feeble and weak. The Great Truth is that you are infinitely capable of doing good, thinking and saying kind words, and acting in gentle and loving ways.

~ Jeanne House & Dawson Church , PhD

Explore. Dream. Discover.

Photo: Display in the Simthsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History - Washington, D.C.

Dance in the Rain

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
it's about learning to dance in the rain.

Photo: Gene Kelly
Singin' in the Rain

Happy Birthday, Dad

Thank you for the laughter,
For the good times that we share,
Thanks for always listening,
For trying to be fair.

Thank you for your comfort,
When things are going bad,
Thank you for the shoulder,
To cry on when I'm sad.

This poem is a reminder that
All my life through,
I'll be thanking Heaven
For a Special Dad like you.

Photo: Dad and Mom, 2007

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Love, Jackie

The Search for Truth

"The right to search for truth implies also a duty;

one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true."

~ Albert Einstein

Painting: Sunset on the Seine Winter effect

Claude Monet 1890