Hi All,
Here’s your weekly dose of “5-Bullet Tuesday”, list of things I’m enjoying or pondering.
What I’m reading –
Sapiens – A brief history of humankind. Completely loving reading this book since I picked it from the British Council Library last week (Yes, library has opened, and I am going to the park too- following COVID protocols, of course but what a delight to have some normalcy back!) The book’s got such amazing insights that you just can’t leave it once you start reading. Unlike any other history book I imagine.
The poem I loved—
When the times are hard, remember that it’s preparation of something beautiful, like the April showers bring the May flowers.. Listen in to this poem for hope and faith during tough times..
Quote I’m pondering —
Kiss s…l…o…w…l…y,
Laugh InSaNeLy,
Live TRULY and
Forgive quickly!
– Paulo Coelho
Story I loved reading—
Patrick Murray tells the story of his mentor – Joel Weldon is a great mentor and teacher of mine. His advice is always so simple and clear and is delivered with real impact. And that’s because when he teaches you something, you believe, you really believe…
This makes a lot of sense. Yes, I can do this!
Perhaps you’ve had a teacher or mentor like that yourself over the years.
Even if you haven’t, I’m sure you’ll get an insight from this story Joel shares.
When Joel first arrived as a student at Farmingdale Ag & Tech school in 1960 to commence a 2-year building construction course, the new tech building had just been finished.
And the one thing Joel noticed on the very first day of going to that completed building was there were no sidewalks.
Now this was a large area where the campus was, with lots of grass separating all of the different buildings. A beautiful campus.
They had dorms and a cafeteria, a student union building and general education buildings where English classes were held. But they were all separate buildings.
There were beautiful grass fields. But around the tech building, no sidewalks!
That’s because Mr Romanelli (Joel’s concrete instructor) had worked with the architects and engineers on the new tech building and helped convince them not to put in sidewalks for one year.
And at first the architects said why wouldn’t we put in sidewalks?
Well, we want to listen to the students, Mr Romanelli said.
So a year later in 1961 the paths were determined. And all that the architects and engineers had to do was look at the grass fields surrounding the tech building and follow the paths the students had made.
The shortest, most direct way to the dorms, to the cafeteria, to the student union building, to the other buildings on campus. And once they saw the footpaths trodden in the grass, they had the PERFECT PATH.
Then they poured the concrete sidewalks and the side benefit of all of that was they had beautiful green grass on campus. Nobody walked across the grass because the paths were made where the students wanted to walk.
It’s the same when our children are learning something new. Wouldn’t it be great if they built their own perfect path? As parents, all we need to do is watch where they are trodden on the grass. What do they enjoy doing? And then, facilitate them in achieving the paths they defined on their own.
Can you imagine how much of a difference this would make?
[Story Credit: Patrick Murray]
My aha moment this week —
In Denmark, there are libraries where you can borrow a person instead of a book to listen to their life story for 30 minutes. 
The goal is to fight against prejudice. Every person has a title – ′′ unemployed “, ′′ refugee “, ′′ bipolar “, etc. – but listening to their story makes you realize how not to ′′ judge a book by its cover “. This innovative and brilliant project is active in more than 50 countries. It’s called ′′ The Human Library “.
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