Waxing philosophical

With all of the reading I have been doing on parenting and on schooling, I have come to some basic principles that I think its important for me to focus on while parenting and educating my kiddos to prepare them for life... I actually have them written down and hung in my kitchen for now.

1. Authenticity: The ability for you to hear your own innervoice, recognize what it is saying to you, and have the courage to follow it, even if its not the current popular trendy thing to do. I don't want to raise little copies of myself, or of anyone else, I want you to be complete individuals.

2. Cultural Transcendence: I want you to appreciate other cultures and to believe to the core of their being that people who may not look or act or believe exactly the way we do, are still our brothers and sisters.

3. FIND YOUR BLISS!!!! Find what YOU love(I have promised to try very very hard to never act shocked or appalled), and then let us help you equip yourself for doing it, even if its not what I or your father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle etc. would choose.

4. Appreciation: Life is short and precious, find the good, find your inner gratitude, and find your way to experience G-d.

5. Acceptance: Its important to me that you accept your self, don't get angry with yourself over your limits, find your aptitudes and accept them too. Most of all, try to live in a way that is able to accept others limits and aptitudes.

6. Needs: (btw, this will become important if you have children, or when you are caring for me in my old age ;) care for you body, for its needs, eat, sleep, drink, take your vitamins, value yourself in such a way that you would never risk your own safety.

7. enlighten your consciousness: appreciate art, and beauty and all the good things nature and life have to offer.

8. Control: you will have to be the person in charge of your own life, in order to not fall into the victim role. You can't blame other people (especially not your mother ;) for the things that are wrong in your life, YOU have to change them. People who allow their control of their own life to be taken end up going nowhere fast. On the other hand, the only thing you control is yourself...

9. Problems: most are minor and fade fast, Get past them as quickly as possible, that way, you are free to deal with things like social injustice, poverty, human suffering.... you get the picture here im sure.

10. Choices: Make good, thoughtful, independent choices, that are YOURS (and don't let your mother talk you out of them!)