a promising morning

Well, maybe promising isn't just right - though it has certainly been a beautiful beginning to this day.
It's nice to see the little lights through the windows, their reflections twinkling on the glass, and maybe swaying a bit with the coming storm.
The sky was a beautiful glowing pink this morning.
The weather lady promised snow today.
I can hardly wait to see snow on the garland - frozen flakes meeting red velvet and pine bows.
So I've marked a few spots in my book, fixed my morning brew of vanilla mocha coffee with hot cocoa, and have tucked the children in their blankets with Clifford and Super Why, or Super Readers, as Maddie calls them, with the promise of french toast and berries to come.

So, now - to the business at hand.

The first point that really strikes me today (reading Everyday Blessings) is this:
Honoring what is deepest in people is symbolically reflected in the custom of greeting others by bowing to them....
This means "I bow to the divinity within you." It signifies a shared recognition of each other's intrinsic wholeness, of what is deepest and most fundamental, and always present. You are bowing from your true nature to theirs, recalling that, at the deepest level, they are one and the same, even as we recognize that, on other levels, we are all different, unique expressions of this oneness.
And I love this....
Sometimes, people bow to cats and dogs, sometimes to trees and flowers, sometimes to the wind and the rain. And sometimes the cats and dogs, the trees and the flowers, even the wind and the rain, bow back.

The second part of this same sort of thinking, ie living mindfully and respectfully with one's children (to me that's what it means) is discussed in the idea that all people long for sovereignty. And I truly believe that all people deserve it. (I probably believe that all things deserve it too, which includes animals, plants, insects, et cetera. - all things being bearers of energy.)
Sovereignty, in the sense of one's true nature, is a universal quality of being, and life, above all, an occasion to understand what that true nature is and how it expresses itself for each of us.

These two things I think are very, very important.
This says pretty much what I want for my children. I want them to express their true nature. I don't even mean their personalities (though that, too, certainly) - but their true spiritual nature. Joy, love, empathy, kindness, exuberance, liveliness.
There are a lot of things I get "right" with living ru, and certain practices that are not mainstream or necessarily common now seem natural to me.
But I get into big trouble sometimes. Mostly when my emotions are high - I do things reactively, out of frustration or anger.
I am wondering instead of trying to curb my emotions - which is sometimes I think a lost cause, if I can simply get to a place where I can view the events around me as... not opportunities, that's a bit too cheesy and fluffy for me to swallow, or even challenges, as I've never been a person motivated by such things - but maybe as chances to better my children's childhood, and possibly find healing of my own.

One other gem that I am finding exceedingly useful information...
I've often criticized and berated myself for my seemingly out of control emotions. Often felt horrid and ashamed for not "behaving like an adult". Frankly, I'm not even sure exactly what that means, other than maybe not emotional, which I cannot fathom, and have no idea how to achieve such a thing, or even if I want to.
But here's what I read a few minutes ago:
On the other hand, if we can let go of our idea in such a moment of how things "should be", and embrace how they actually are with this child; in other words, if we can remember that we are the adult and that we can look inside ourselves at that very moment and find a way to act with some degree of wisdom and compassion, and in the best interest of our child - then our emotional state and our choices of what to do will be very different, as will be the unfolding and resolution of that moment into the next.
So, then, key words being adult behavior just being "using compassion and acting with wisdom".
That is something that I believe I can handle.

And now I really must be off.
Maddie has eaten most of the berries, and Trev wants to play pretend - he's worried about the dinosaurs' food source with the coming snow....
Til later today, hopefully.