Incredible Experiences While Homeschooling

We had the most amazing experience yesterday. The weather was
gorgeous, so I took the kids (age 7 and 4) for a walk along a trail
that starts right beside the Snow Valley Ski area. It was warm and
sunny and we were looking for puddles.

There is a bridge over a creek close to the beginning of the trail.
The creek was still frozen, and the kids wanted to go down and walk
around on the ice. I do have a brain, this sounded kind of dangerous,
so I went first, and it seemed safe enough. The ice on top was
crunchy, and underneath it was just frozen mud and ice, so I decided
it was okay.

We played and explored there for a while, and then went back up to
the trail and walked some more. There was another spot where we
climbed down onto the creek and watched little rivulets of water
trickling around and crunched up all of the ice and poked at things
with sticks and generally had a wonderful time.

I decided it was time to head back, so we did. Well, when we got back
to the first bridge, THE CREEK WATER WAS RUSHING BY AT HIGH SPEED! I
was stunned. Only 45 minutes before, we were walking around on the
same spot that was now drowned by muddy, flowing water! Only 15
minutes before, we were playing IN the creek bed just two curves downstream!

I had no idea that a creek could switch from ice to flowing water so
quickly. My kids are convinced that they are directly responsible for
the creek starting to move because "we broke up the ice"!

Buddhism and Spiritual Principles

A couple of weeks ago, I spotted the book Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh at the library and grabbed it, plus about 6 more by the same author. It is such a beautiful, peaceful, encouraging, soothing, inspirational book. It is the kind of book that makes me want to pause every few paragraphs to savour the words, and re-read the pages over and over again until the wisdom of his words sinks right into my soul. It's like absorbing Truth with every turn of the page. The book is like a gift to the world, and I am so grateful that it leaped off the shelf and into my hands. I need to order it from Chapters so that I will have my own copy.

It reminds me a lot of the book The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. I read that last year and had the same experience of wanting to pause after every paragraph to savour the ideas. In fact, both books are about exactly the same idea: Nhat Hanh calls it "mindfulness" and Tolle calls it being in the present moment. It's an idea that I have been working with for quite a while, and I had no idea that it had anything to do with Buddhism. It happens to be a great way to alleviate stress, to calm a baby, to teach children, to talk to your husband, to go for a walk, or even to wash the dishes. Most of us are terrible at it. At least I'm aware that I'm terrible at it, and I am "practicing" in order to improve.

I have skimmed through a few of Nhat Hanh's other books, and they are all so practical, yet gentle and forgiving. Even though he is a Buddhist monk, he is very familiar with how challenging it is to find time to meditate, how easy it is to be distracted by TV, books, magazines, computers, games, and other amusements, and how important it is to continue "practicing" mindfulness. I love the word "practicing." It makes it sounds like we are all just learning, and we all still need more practice in order to improve. It's not like you're either succeeding or failing, you're just practicing all the time.

I am trying to figure out where some of the spiritual principles I am learning come from, and how they all fit together. Some of them sound very familiar, and other ideas sound like they are diametrically opposed. For example, one of the ideas I'm working with right now is the concept of "non-attachment." The idea is that you do not become attached to any particular outcome. Whatever happens is perfectly okay, going exactly according to God's plan, the universe is unfolding exactly as it should, etc. I think this is a somewhat Buddhist idea, but don't quote me on that. Maybe it's also a Christian idea - don't they talk about the concept of "submitting" to God's will? Anyway, it's a fairly low-stress approach to living, because you don't need to tie yourself into knots trying to make your life perfect or trying to fix everything. Everything is already just right. All you need to do is practice mindfulness, experiencing the world one moment at a time, one miracle at a time.

On the other hand, I am familiar with the concept of "Law of Attraction," manifesting what you desire, creating your own reality, and so on. In self-help type of books, it involves a lot of visualizations, affirmations, positive thinking, goal setting, and praying. My own interpretation of the idea is that every single thought you have is a prayer, and the universe is constantly adjusting to make all of your prayers come true. So, if you are constantly thinking about how broke and stressed and tired and sick you are, guess what??? You will create more broke, stressed, tired, and sick. If, despite your miserable conditions, you are able to put your thoughts on what you're grateful for (loving husband, cute kids, a decent meal, clothes on your back, a good friend), then not only will you feel better, but positive things will flow into your life. I earnestly believe that this is exactly how the world works, mainly because I have experienced it myself over and over and over again.

I just can't quite figure out how "non-attachment" and "law of attraction" fit together. They seem like polar opposites. I believe the real trick is that you're supposed to do them both simultaneously. I'll let you know when I figure that out.

Ski Trip Bliss

We got home last night from our family ski trip to Panorama (near Invermere, BC). It was fantastic.

Skiing holds a special place in my heart. I met my husband Derek on a ski trip way back in 1992 when we were both members of the U of A Ski Club. We did a lot of skiing together before we were married. We decided to start a family eight years ago on a ski trip to Panorama, and now we have both of our kids on skis.

The skiing life is just such a fantastic way to live. We get up every day and head outside for 4 or 5 hours of fresh air and exercise. There's time for the hot tub, swimming, or relaxing before a hearty supper, and then then you can read, watch a movie, do some school work, play a board game, and then sleep like a rock until you get up and do it all over again. We were gone for 6 full days of skiing, and I didn't have the slightest desire to come home.

My 7-year-old daughter is amazing on skis. She started as a beginner on Monday, and by Saturday, she was riding up the quad chair with her dad, skiing down the blue square runs (that's intermediate, in case you don't know). She can even ride the chair lift by herself. I just love seeing how happy and proud she is and how much fun she is having.

My 4-year-old son did pretty well this week, too. At first, he was very floppy and clingy and wouldn't stand up unless he held my hand or my ski poles. I wasn't sure if I should push him harder or put him into a lesson or what to do with him. I decided to just do things his
way (that's the attachment parent unschooler coming out in me) and by the end of the week he was standing up much better on his skis, and he even wanted to let go of my poles and glide down on his own sometimes. He has a really great attitude about skiing: he wanted to head out every day and he had great stamina. He was willing to stay out there for a couple of hours before heading back. He LOVED it when Derek or I would hold him and go really fast. He would laugh and screech and shout "Yee Haw Horsie" all the way down the hill.

After all that fresh air and exercise, I am starting to feel really good again. I was feeling like a big fat slug for a while, and not really sure what to do about it. I go for walks and I run on the
treadmill, but I am always, constantly battling with my weight and my food addictions. The situation improves on vacations. Our vacations usually involve a lot of skiing or hiking or some kind of physical, outdoorsy activities, and I always feel great by the end of it.

Maybe what I need to do is change my life around to make it more like vacations. It feels so good to get outside right away in the morning. I want to head out for a long hike or a long bike ride or something. I always thought that we have to get our school work done first, but
maybe we could do it in the late afternoon or after supper. All the regular school kids have homework to do at night, so maybe that's when we should do our work, too. Actually, I have a really great school schedule forming in my head already:

• get up with ds and do school work with him first
• get dd out of bed
• head outside with kids for some big outdoor activity: hiking, skiing,
• toboganning, cycling, swimming....
• come back home for relaxation & quiet reading time
• do some serious school work for an hour before or after supper
• play board games, do lego projects, etc until bed time

I had this fantasy that we would do that today, but it totally didn't work out. It's still winter here, and Edmonton is pretty flat - no ski hill in my back yard. I did manage to drag the kids for a walk around the block, but that isn't going to do much for my fitness level. It will get a little easier in the spring and summer, but it's still hard to get a good workout with small kids in tow. Maybe if I just add a 15 minute treadmill session to the morning, it will be enough.

I have lots more to talk about, but so little time. It's already 11:30pm. Derek is away in San Francisco for the Game Developer's Conference, so I need to be on my toes this week in order to handle everything alone.