Fill the minds of your enemies with loving kindness

Remember that your thoughts are transformed into speech and action in order to bring the expected result. Thought translated into action is capable of producing a tangible result. You should always speak and do things with mindfulness of loving kindness

For all practical purposes, if all of your enemies are well, happy and peaceful, they would not be your enemies. If they are free from problems, pain, suffering, affliction, neurosis, psychosis, fear, tension, anxiety, etc., they would not be your enemies. Your practical solution toward your enemies is to help them to overcome their problems, so you can live in peace and happiness. In fact, if you can, you should fill the minds of all your enemies with loving kindness and make all of them realize the true meaning of peace, so you can live in peace and happiness. The more they are in neurosis, psychosis, fear, tension, anxiety, etc., the more trouble, pain and suffering they can bring to the world. If you could convert a vicious and wicked person into a holy and saintly individual, you would perform a miracle. Let us cultivate adequate wisdom and loving kindness within ourselves to convert evil minds to saintly minds.

- Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English from Everyday Mind
Tricycle's Daily Dharma: February 29, 2008

Update on break week; fun Saturday

It's been a busy "break" week in my household. My two kidlins and I kept ourselves busy with playdates, errands, some extra videos from the library, and a spot of sledding. The snow this week kept us from adventures further afield as I had planned...I didn't really want to go to Cranbrook during a snow advisory, for example.

Yesterday, I got to go walking with shekkara at the county farm park, which was a challenge due to the snow. Powdery and several inches deep, it made walking rather more of a slog. We didn't see any other walkers in the park itself, but we did see a number of cross-country skiers. A pair of walkers passed us on the sidewalk along Washtenaw when we took a loop around the park instead of through. I felt kind of funny about that...we need to pick up the pace a bit, I guess. There's still lots of time before the Freep Half Marathon in the fall. I am rather jealous of the cross-country skiers. I want some skis!!

Then I came home and had just enough time to shower, season the soup in the crock cooker, and clean up a little bit before our first gamer guest arrived for some 18XX action. I spent the first hour or so shooting the breeze with guests and preparing more food while I tried to herd us into playing 1861; I got my wish. The kids watched movies and played games and tried to get our guests to tickle them, mostly successfully. It amuses me greatly that I was still able to beat the competition, even though I was doing a fair amount of cooking and hostessing through the game. Women playing 18XX games are rather a rarity, so it gives me great satisfaction when I show I can play well. I've passed 'resigned' on this issue of hostessing and gone on to be able to say I enjoy being able to cook for people and still play well. I guess it's just what I get for playing a "man's game." :) 1861 is definitely my current favorite among 18XX games...I will have to look in to getting a copy when I have a little extra cash.

Unfortunately, it looks like illyaa may have gotten the nasty flu that's going around. It didn't show up until yesterday evening after our guests had left, in the form of a fever. My best guess is he got something from tammylc, because she's been battling infection after infection for several weeks, and he saw her briefly earlier this week. I fervently hope the rest of us can escape whatever ick he has. *crosses fingers* He's on the couch snoring gently as I write.

I helped older daughter S make breakfast this morning, then cleaned and sanitized the kitchen in an effort to kill any stray viruses. Take that!!! There's stew in the crock cooker for dinner later (beef, shallots, garlic, red potatoes, carrots, rosemary, black pepper, bay laurel, and the remainder of a bottle of wine I had left in the fridge). I plan to get out the the library with the kids today, and I hope to tackle my desk too, as the paper tigers have rather multiplied this week.

Interesting...

( Which Beatles song am I? )

NYMag article on kids learning to lie

via geekparents, Full Article Here.
Here's my favorite excerpt:

Pushing a teen into rebellion by having too many rules was a sort of statistical myth. “That actually doesn’t happen,” remarks Darling. She found that most rules-heavy parents don’t actually enforce them. “It’s too much work,” says Darling. “It’s a lot harder to enforce three rules than to set twenty rules.”

A few parents managed to live up to the stereotype of the oppressive parent, with lots of psychological intrusion, but those teens weren’t rebelling. They were obedient. And depressed. [Hm, that sounds possibly familiar...lol]

“Ironically, the type of parents who are actually most consistent in enforcing rules are the same parents who are most warm and have the most conversations with their kids,” Darling observes. They’ve set a few rules over certain key spheres of influence, and they’ve explained why the rules are there. They expect the child to obey them. Over life’s other spheres, they supported the child’s autonomy, allowing them freedom to make their own decisions. [And this is what I'm *trying* to do. I'm succeeding by fits and starts; I'm not as consistent as I would like yet. But I am trying. Besides my kids are only 9 and 5; I've still got lots of practice ahead.]