Woodbury Bulletin - 01/28/2009
Early Thursday morning, Jan. 15, after I arrived at my office, I turned on my computer and checked my e-mail. That’s when I saw the surprise message that schools in South Washington County were closed due to extreme temperatures.
“Oh no, school is closed!”
I wasn’t happy about school closing, but this time, at least, I got the news and could let my kids know so they didn’t have to wait for the bus in vain, as happened to them the last time.
A few years ago, when the first school closing happened to us due to the same weather condition, we didn’t know anything about it in advance. My son and a few other kids waited and waited at the bus stop. And the bus never came.
I didn’t want that cold experience to happen to other families. So I contacted a few friends to let them know.
One of my friends, who is a teacher in St. Paul, said, “Don’t expect this to happen in St Paul.”
St. Paul or Minneapolis school districts rarely close their schools.
I imagine there were some busy parents who dropped their kids at schools on Thursday morning, only to find that the buildings were closed.
I could also imagine there were some kids who stood at the bus stop waiting for the bus on Thursday morning, but it never came.
Well, not much imagination was needed. These things certainly happened.
In fact, someone I know dropped her kid at school and went on to work, only to be called back later to pick up her child.
Once parents found out that there was no school, many had to scramble and rearrange their schedule for the day. For working parents, they had to find other day care arrangement or take the day off to stay home with their kids.
Then the same thing happened again on Friday, Jan. 16.
“Oh no, school is closed — again!”
I am sure this same thought went through many parents’ minds.
School cancellation causes inconvenience for many, and maybe some hardship for a few.
Personally, I don’t have problems with day care for my kids because they can stay home with grandparents. But still, I don’t like school closing.
The St. Paul newspaper had this fitting headline on its cover on Jan. 15: “What’d you expect? It’s Minnesota.”
If St. Paul and Minneapolis families could tough it out, why couldn’t we in Woodbury? I have other reasons to be concerned about school closing.
American schools already have one of the shortest school years in the world.
We just had our holiday break. In January, we have four scheduled no school days, Jan. 1, 2, 19 and 26. Now we added two more no school days. It feels like a lot of no school days to me.
A District 833 official said that “the extra days off won’t be an added burden on students and teachers to stay on track with their courses.”
When my son told me their fifth-graders got to skip the MAP reading test which was scheduled on one of the two days, for me at least, it meant they did have to give up on something that I think is important.
The test could tell me whether and how my son has progressed in his reading over the last few months.
I know school closing is decided by the superintendent or his designee, based on the best interests of the students and employees. One person’s decision affects tens of thousands of people.
I wonder whether this should be the job of parents to decide what is in the best interest of their kids.
Personally I would prefer to have our school district send out an advanced alert about the severe weather condition.
Parents could be encouraged to take their kids to school, or they could make the choice of skipping school.
Parents should use their own judgment to do what is in the best interest of their kids and families.
My preference is to let parents make the decision, unless the weather and road condition is really bad we have to cancel, in case we have a terrible snow storm.
In that case, I would appreciate receiving a phone call from school instead of an e-mail.
How many parents have time or would think to check e-mail and websites, or watch TV early in the morning?
I often get automated phone messages from school about fundraising events. Why can’t we get an automated phone message for school closing? At least this could prevent all unnecessary trips to school or waiting at the bus stop and save a lot of frustration.
A friend in Woodbury whose daughter who is in the Stillwater School District said she got phone calls at home, on her cell and in her office about their school closing.
I hope our school district could provide this kind of courtesy call.
When it comes to make the decision to close school, I understand different factors are taking into consideration. I admit I only see a few trees and not the forest or the whole picture.
I also understand that other parents may have different opinions about school closing. It is OK to have different points of view. We are all different and think differently.
I just want to share my own thoughts here.
In the end, we can at least all agree with what our superintendent once said: “You can’t please everyone.”
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Life is more than success
Woodbury Bulletin - 01/21/2009
Every time I go to the R. H. Stafford Library, I always stop at the new book shelf near the entrance to check what new books are there.
Recently, I happened to see the autobiography by Lang Lang, “Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story” ((Random House, 2008).
I had heard about Lang Lang and read articles about him.
Lang Lang, from China, is considered one of the greatest pianists of our time. He has played with the leading orchestras in all major concert halls throughout the world.
I was interested in reading more about him. The 256-page book proved to be an easy and interesting read.
“Journey of a Thousand Miles” reveals Lang Lang’s journey from his early childhood as a prodigy in the industrial city Shenyang in northern China to his difficult years in Beijing to his success today.
As a Chinese person, I am familiar with the competitive mind he embodies and talks about in the book.
“In the culture of my childhood, being best was everything. It was the goal that drove us, the motivation that gave life meaning.”
Number One was his mantra. Lang Lang was driven by his own desire to be the number one, to win competitions.
He was also driven by his father who was considered mentally and physically abusive, certainly by American standard.
He did become number one time and time again in various national and international competitions, thanks to he and his parents’ hard work, determination and sacrifices.
Since Lang Lang has established himself as one of the greatest pianists, he lived a life of excitement and glamour.
He traveled all around the world, from the Golden Globe Awards ceremony to Nobel Prize ceremony, from the World Cub to the Beijing Olympic Games. He played at the White House and the Kremlin.
He performed for presidents, kings, queens and other dignitaries.
Lang Lang had a difficult childhood. He lived in poverty before reaching success. His story was very touching and inspiring.
But what impressed me the most in the book was his confession of having depression after reaching success and prosperity.
Despite his fame and success, he felt depressed.
“I couldn’t seem to enjoy my success,” Lang Lang confessed, “Depression had been looming over me since my professional career took off. I’d felt constantly unmoored, always completely alone in spite of the crowds that clamored for my attention.”
This is a sad statement, yet not so surprising for me.
I know many people can easily identify with this feeling.
No matter what our own personal stories are, no matter how different our life journeys are, no matter what big, small or no successes we have in life, we all experience times when we feel completely alone in this world.
Success alone does not make our life fulfilling and meaningful.
At the end of the story, Lang Land did find some meaning in working as an International Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF. In that role he traveled to different parts of the world and advocated for the children.
Lang Lang developed a foundation to support the education of classic music, to help children realize their dreams, with music as a starting point, to improve the world by improving the lives of children through music.
He saw his role as that of a cultural ambassador who can build bridges between cultures and foster peaceful and respectful cooperation.
Now in addition to sharing his talent as a pianist and sharing music with the world, he also lent his support to environmental issues China is facing now.
In the end Lang Lang understood that as an artist, his responsibility goes beyond music. His music must serve people and peace. He found more meaning in life.
I hope Lang Lang will look not only beyond the world of music, but also beyond this world, to see what he can not see with his eyes and hear what he can not hear with his ears, to find true and eternal meaning in life.
Lang Lang’s story reinforced in me the lesson that there is more than success in life. Finding meaning in life is a life long learning and searching process.
The book ends with the saying of Lao-tzu: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Every one of us has to start our journey with a single step.
Why not make the beginning of this New Year the beginning of your journey, whatever that journey is, in your life right now!
Every time I go to the R. H. Stafford Library, I always stop at the new book shelf near the entrance to check what new books are there.
Recently, I happened to see the autobiography by Lang Lang, “Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story” ((Random House, 2008).
I had heard about Lang Lang and read articles about him.
Lang Lang, from China, is considered one of the greatest pianists of our time. He has played with the leading orchestras in all major concert halls throughout the world.
I was interested in reading more about him. The 256-page book proved to be an easy and interesting read.
“Journey of a Thousand Miles” reveals Lang Lang’s journey from his early childhood as a prodigy in the industrial city Shenyang in northern China to his difficult years in Beijing to his success today.
As a Chinese person, I am familiar with the competitive mind he embodies and talks about in the book.
“In the culture of my childhood, being best was everything. It was the goal that drove us, the motivation that gave life meaning.”
Number One was his mantra. Lang Lang was driven by his own desire to be the number one, to win competitions.
He was also driven by his father who was considered mentally and physically abusive, certainly by American standard.
He did become number one time and time again in various national and international competitions, thanks to he and his parents’ hard work, determination and sacrifices.
Since Lang Lang has established himself as one of the greatest pianists, he lived a life of excitement and glamour.
He traveled all around the world, from the Golden Globe Awards ceremony to Nobel Prize ceremony, from the World Cub to the Beijing Olympic Games. He played at the White House and the Kremlin.
He performed for presidents, kings, queens and other dignitaries.
Lang Lang had a difficult childhood. He lived in poverty before reaching success. His story was very touching and inspiring.
But what impressed me the most in the book was his confession of having depression after reaching success and prosperity.
Despite his fame and success, he felt depressed.
“I couldn’t seem to enjoy my success,” Lang Lang confessed, “Depression had been looming over me since my professional career took off. I’d felt constantly unmoored, always completely alone in spite of the crowds that clamored for my attention.”
This is a sad statement, yet not so surprising for me.
I know many people can easily identify with this feeling.
No matter what our own personal stories are, no matter how different our life journeys are, no matter what big, small or no successes we have in life, we all experience times when we feel completely alone in this world.
Success alone does not make our life fulfilling and meaningful.
At the end of the story, Lang Land did find some meaning in working as an International Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF. In that role he traveled to different parts of the world and advocated for the children.
Lang Lang developed a foundation to support the education of classic music, to help children realize their dreams, with music as a starting point, to improve the world by improving the lives of children through music.
He saw his role as that of a cultural ambassador who can build bridges between cultures and foster peaceful and respectful cooperation.
Now in addition to sharing his talent as a pianist and sharing music with the world, he also lent his support to environmental issues China is facing now.
In the end Lang Lang understood that as an artist, his responsibility goes beyond music. His music must serve people and peace. He found more meaning in life.
I hope Lang Lang will look not only beyond the world of music, but also beyond this world, to see what he can not see with his eyes and hear what he can not hear with his ears, to find true and eternal meaning in life.
Lang Lang’s story reinforced in me the lesson that there is more than success in life. Finding meaning in life is a life long learning and searching process.
The book ends with the saying of Lao-tzu: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Every one of us has to start our journey with a single step.
Why not make the beginning of this New Year the beginning of your journey, whatever that journey is, in your life right now!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Virtual clutter removal
Woodbury Bulletin - 01/14/2009
There has been a lot of talk about de-cluttering our physical space. Our houses, garages, closets or drawers all need a clean-up on a regular basis, otherwise they will overflow and make our lives stressful.
The same thing is happening to our virtual lives. Virtual clutter can drag us down and create stress and anxiety like physical clutter can.
These days, many people not only live in the physical world, but also in a very active virtual world.
We bank online, date online, make purchases online, register classes online, check our medical records or kids’ school records online, track our investments online or reserve books online.
People also use different Internet social networking tools, such as MySpace, YouTube, Second Life and Flickr.
We have e-mail accounts and some employ multiple accounts. We use e-mail to correspond with others, to read e-newsletters, etc.
I have so many user names and passwords for different accounts that I get overwhelmed and sometimes I don’t remember what is what.
The messages in my e-mail inbox had grown to more than 1,000 at the end of last year. It reached such a level that I knew I had to do something about it. I couldn’t let them keep growing and get out of control.
An overstuffed e-mail inbox, with thousands of unread messages, a desktop covered with files and images, are all forms of e-clutter that distract and overload us unnecessarily.
So, over the past Christmas and New Year holidays, I spent a lot of quiet free-time on cleaning up my Yahoo e-mail inbox. I call it virtual de-cluttering.
I went through my inbox.
For the old messages, I either moved them to an appropriate folder or delete them. I have 30 folders to store old e-mail.
Some of the messages were e-newsletters I received regularly that I had, or had not, read over the years. I quickly read and deleted most of them.
I confess, I am a hoarder in all aspects of my life, physical or virtual. As a cyber-packrat, I keep lots of old messages. I have about 2,000 e-mails in my 30 folders.
I think I am very good at responding to messages right away, but I am an e-procrastinator who thinks I’ll deal with old e-mail tomorrow. That’s how my inbox keeps expanding.
Here are a few things I have done or learned that can help you keep your e-mail and virtual life more organized and less cluttered:
• Don’t respond to pop-ups
Once I made the big mistake of allowing my son to use my Yahoo e-mail address to respond to a pop-up request. Since then my inbox has been flooded with spam mails that made my virtual life miserable.
• Create a spam folder for junk mails
Luckily, I was able to create a spam folder in my Yahoo e-mail. All the spam mails now go directly into the spam folder. A few times a week, I delete one or two hundreds of spam mail by simply empting the spam folder.
By filtering the incoming mail, my inbox has become very manageable again.
• Create and label folders
In order to be organized, we have to have a filing system, whether it’s for traditional mail or e-mail.
For my Yahoo e-mail, I created a filing system by having labeled folders. So I have a place for everything I want to save from inbox. If there is a place for everything, then it is easier to organize and later to find things.
Moving e-mail into folders by subject is a good way to pare down an inbox.
• Different email accounts for different activities
Even though I registered for more than one free e-mail accounts, I basically use my Yahoo email for everything. In addition I also have a work email through my employer.
I know some people use more than one private e-mail account for different activities or purposes. They might use one for families and friends, another one for business or online purchases, etc.
This strategy could keep things separate and more organized, but for me it is also more time-consuming to have to deal with more accounts.
• Compress several messages into one
If I have a message that has generated several follow-up or response messages and I want to keep all, I copy all follow-up messages into the original message. This way I only need to save one message instead of several messages related to one topic.
• Declare e-mail bankruptcy
Sometimes to regain a sense of order and to start fresh, people may have no choice but to declare e-mail bankruptcy and kill all old messages.
If you ever feel you are drowning in e-mail and see no way out, the only solution might be to empty your inbox by deleting everything in it and start from scratch.
It does take more courage to do so.
As we begin the year 2009, maybe you also want to take some time to clear your e-clutter for a fresh start in the New Year.
This I know — you will feel lighter and better once you de-clutter your virtual environment, just as you de-clutter your physical environment.
There has been a lot of talk about de-cluttering our physical space. Our houses, garages, closets or drawers all need a clean-up on a regular basis, otherwise they will overflow and make our lives stressful.
The same thing is happening to our virtual lives. Virtual clutter can drag us down and create stress and anxiety like physical clutter can.
These days, many people not only live in the physical world, but also in a very active virtual world.
We bank online, date online, make purchases online, register classes online, check our medical records or kids’ school records online, track our investments online or reserve books online.
People also use different Internet social networking tools, such as MySpace, YouTube, Second Life and Flickr.
We have e-mail accounts and some employ multiple accounts. We use e-mail to correspond with others, to read e-newsletters, etc.
I have so many user names and passwords for different accounts that I get overwhelmed and sometimes I don’t remember what is what.
The messages in my e-mail inbox had grown to more than 1,000 at the end of last year. It reached such a level that I knew I had to do something about it. I couldn’t let them keep growing and get out of control.
An overstuffed e-mail inbox, with thousands of unread messages, a desktop covered with files and images, are all forms of e-clutter that distract and overload us unnecessarily.
So, over the past Christmas and New Year holidays, I spent a lot of quiet free-time on cleaning up my Yahoo e-mail inbox. I call it virtual de-cluttering.
I went through my inbox.
For the old messages, I either moved them to an appropriate folder or delete them. I have 30 folders to store old e-mail.
Some of the messages were e-newsletters I received regularly that I had, or had not, read over the years. I quickly read and deleted most of them.
I confess, I am a hoarder in all aspects of my life, physical or virtual. As a cyber-packrat, I keep lots of old messages. I have about 2,000 e-mails in my 30 folders.
I think I am very good at responding to messages right away, but I am an e-procrastinator who thinks I’ll deal with old e-mail tomorrow. That’s how my inbox keeps expanding.
Here are a few things I have done or learned that can help you keep your e-mail and virtual life more organized and less cluttered:
• Don’t respond to pop-ups
Once I made the big mistake of allowing my son to use my Yahoo e-mail address to respond to a pop-up request. Since then my inbox has been flooded with spam mails that made my virtual life miserable.
• Create a spam folder for junk mails
Luckily, I was able to create a spam folder in my Yahoo e-mail. All the spam mails now go directly into the spam folder. A few times a week, I delete one or two hundreds of spam mail by simply empting the spam folder.
By filtering the incoming mail, my inbox has become very manageable again.
• Create and label folders
In order to be organized, we have to have a filing system, whether it’s for traditional mail or e-mail.
For my Yahoo e-mail, I created a filing system by having labeled folders. So I have a place for everything I want to save from inbox. If there is a place for everything, then it is easier to organize and later to find things.
Moving e-mail into folders by subject is a good way to pare down an inbox.
• Different email accounts for different activities
Even though I registered for more than one free e-mail accounts, I basically use my Yahoo email for everything. In addition I also have a work email through my employer.
I know some people use more than one private e-mail account for different activities or purposes. They might use one for families and friends, another one for business or online purchases, etc.
This strategy could keep things separate and more organized, but for me it is also more time-consuming to have to deal with more accounts.
• Compress several messages into one
If I have a message that has generated several follow-up or response messages and I want to keep all, I copy all follow-up messages into the original message. This way I only need to save one message instead of several messages related to one topic.
• Declare e-mail bankruptcy
Sometimes to regain a sense of order and to start fresh, people may have no choice but to declare e-mail bankruptcy and kill all old messages.
If you ever feel you are drowning in e-mail and see no way out, the only solution might be to empty your inbox by deleting everything in it and start from scratch.
It does take more courage to do so.
As we begin the year 2009, maybe you also want to take some time to clear your e-clutter for a fresh start in the New Year.
This I know — you will feel lighter and better once you de-clutter your virtual environment, just as you de-clutter your physical environment.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
My best holiday ever
Woodbury Bulletin - 01/07/2009
As I sit down to write this column, another Christmas holiday has just passed.
I didn’t do anything special during the holiday.
I didn’t go on vacation. I went to work on both days before and after Christmas. The office was dead quiet.
As usual, I spent several hours on Christmas Eve preparing my annual Christmas treasure hunt for my kids.
I went to bed long past midnight so I got up really late on Christmas morning.
My kids had fun with the treasure hunt while I was still sleeping.
In the afternoon after lunch, I went out for a walk by myself in the neighborhood.
It was cold, and again dead quiet. I could not see a living soul. I hadn’t had a walk outside for a long time. It felt refreshing and good.
I didn’t go out to a fancy restaurant or a party. I didn’t have any expensive presents. None of these mattered.
I simply had a very peaceful, relaxed time which I enjoyed. That was really all I needed.
This Christmas holiday could be easily one just like any in the past, nothing extraordinary happened that it would easily slip from my memory.
But thanks to my kids, they made this year’s holiday my best one ever. I know I will always remember it.
On the last school day before the winter break started, my nine-year-old daughter Amy brought home a poem she wrote for me as one of her Christmas presents.
Then in the evening, she also wrote a poem for her Dad, a poem for her brother and a poem for her Grandma.
I was so happy and proud of her for writing those poems. I gave her a journal as her poem book so she could keep the poems in one place.
Unbeknownst to me, this was just the beginning of her poetry fever.
Somehow, Amy and, under her influence, my 10-year-old son Andy both got caught by the poetry bug. They started to write poems together.
On Christmas Eve, the first no school day, they built a poetry fort in the corner of the play room.
They stick one side of a big towel in the door to hold it and another side on the sofa close to the door.
This served as a curtain.
They put a few pillows and towels on the floor. They hid themselves behind the curtain in that tiny corner for hours thinking and writing poems.
They were on a serious mission. They didn’t allow anyone to look what they were doing.
They used a rhyming booklet, the Lucky Pocket Rhyming Dictionary, to help them brainstorm ideas and find rhyming words.
They scribbled their poems on sticky post-it notes first. Then they transferred them to the poem book.
Amy had a tiny bottle with candies shaped like pills. She called the candies her “thinking pills.”
On the first day, they wrote more than 30 poems. Some of the poems are really good, by my layman’s eyes. I cannot write so well myself.
They became two poets over night. I was excited, to say the least. I was kind of in shock.
I suggested that they should submit their poems to Woodbury Bulletin’s monthly kids’ section —Sprouts.
If they submit two poems a month, they could keep it going for a while. And hopefully they will continue writing poems that they can contribute on a regular basis.
For the next few days, Amy and Andy kept their poetry writing going back and forth.
So far, as I am finishing up this column on the night of Monday, Dec. 29, 2008, Amy and Andy have written more than 100 poems.
I should add, most of them are silly nonsense verses, some are Haiku.
Nothing could make me happier than seeing my kids so excited in their new poetry adventure and so productive in what they are doing.
I am also glad that they found something to do during this winter break that is so much fun and better than playing computer or Wii games.
My heart has been full of gladness and joy since my daughter showed me the poem she wrote for me on Dec. 23.
With so many poems my kids wrote in the last few days, they have really made this holiday the best and the most memorable one I have ever had in my life.
Here I would like to share this poem Amy gave me for Christmas:
My Mom
By Amy Guo
My mom is the best mom you can meet.
She’s the best when you eat.
She’s the best when she gives you more.
She’s the mom I adore.
She’s the one who lets me play.
Look there she is on Christmas Day!
Hooray!
For more of Amy and Andy’s poems, please read future issues of Sprouts in this paper.
P.S. I know I am far away from the “best mom” I should be. But I am glad my daughter says so.
And I was surprised by “She’s the best when you eat.”
Amy and I fight almost every day during meal time, because I make her to eat vegetables for every dinner which she doesn’t want to.
As I sit down to write this column, another Christmas holiday has just passed.
I didn’t do anything special during the holiday.
I didn’t go on vacation. I went to work on both days before and after Christmas. The office was dead quiet.
As usual, I spent several hours on Christmas Eve preparing my annual Christmas treasure hunt for my kids.
I went to bed long past midnight so I got up really late on Christmas morning.
My kids had fun with the treasure hunt while I was still sleeping.
In the afternoon after lunch, I went out for a walk by myself in the neighborhood.
It was cold, and again dead quiet. I could not see a living soul. I hadn’t had a walk outside for a long time. It felt refreshing and good.
I didn’t go out to a fancy restaurant or a party. I didn’t have any expensive presents. None of these mattered.
I simply had a very peaceful, relaxed time which I enjoyed. That was really all I needed.
This Christmas holiday could be easily one just like any in the past, nothing extraordinary happened that it would easily slip from my memory.
But thanks to my kids, they made this year’s holiday my best one ever. I know I will always remember it.
On the last school day before the winter break started, my nine-year-old daughter Amy brought home a poem she wrote for me as one of her Christmas presents.
Then in the evening, she also wrote a poem for her Dad, a poem for her brother and a poem for her Grandma.
I was so happy and proud of her for writing those poems. I gave her a journal as her poem book so she could keep the poems in one place.
Unbeknownst to me, this was just the beginning of her poetry fever.
Somehow, Amy and, under her influence, my 10-year-old son Andy both got caught by the poetry bug. They started to write poems together.
On Christmas Eve, the first no school day, they built a poetry fort in the corner of the play room.
They stick one side of a big towel in the door to hold it and another side on the sofa close to the door.
This served as a curtain.
They put a few pillows and towels on the floor. They hid themselves behind the curtain in that tiny corner for hours thinking and writing poems.
They were on a serious mission. They didn’t allow anyone to look what they were doing.
They used a rhyming booklet, the Lucky Pocket Rhyming Dictionary, to help them brainstorm ideas and find rhyming words.
They scribbled their poems on sticky post-it notes first. Then they transferred them to the poem book.
Amy had a tiny bottle with candies shaped like pills. She called the candies her “thinking pills.”
On the first day, they wrote more than 30 poems. Some of the poems are really good, by my layman’s eyes. I cannot write so well myself.
They became two poets over night. I was excited, to say the least. I was kind of in shock.
I suggested that they should submit their poems to Woodbury Bulletin’s monthly kids’ section —Sprouts.
If they submit two poems a month, they could keep it going for a while. And hopefully they will continue writing poems that they can contribute on a regular basis.
For the next few days, Amy and Andy kept their poetry writing going back and forth.
So far, as I am finishing up this column on the night of Monday, Dec. 29, 2008, Amy and Andy have written more than 100 poems.
I should add, most of them are silly nonsense verses, some are Haiku.
Nothing could make me happier than seeing my kids so excited in their new poetry adventure and so productive in what they are doing.
I am also glad that they found something to do during this winter break that is so much fun and better than playing computer or Wii games.
My heart has been full of gladness and joy since my daughter showed me the poem she wrote for me on Dec. 23.
With so many poems my kids wrote in the last few days, they have really made this holiday the best and the most memorable one I have ever had in my life.
Here I would like to share this poem Amy gave me for Christmas:
My Mom
By Amy Guo
My mom is the best mom you can meet.
She’s the best when you eat.
She’s the best when she gives you more.
She’s the mom I adore.
She’s the one who lets me play.
Look there she is on Christmas Day!
Hooray!
For more of Amy and Andy’s poems, please read future issues of Sprouts in this paper.
P.S. I know I am far away from the “best mom” I should be. But I am glad my daughter says so.
And I was surprised by “She’s the best when you eat.”
Amy and I fight almost every day during meal time, because I make her to eat vegetables for every dinner which she doesn’t want to.
What we really need in life
Woodbury Bulletin - 12/31/2008
Last week, a cousin living in Hungary sent me a YouTube link to a video clip about Nick Vujicic, a man without limbs.
The video was only a few minutes long, but it was very powerful. I felt so inspired and moved that I had to forward it to a few friends.
I even went to Oprah’s website to submit a suggestion for her "Oprah Winfrey Show." I sent it to one of her producers whom I recently read about in the UW-Madison Alumni magazine “On Wisconsin.”
Even though I don’t watch Oprah or other TV programs, I know Oprah has perhaps the most influential TV talk show in the world. I thought if she hasn’t already interviewed Nick Vujicic, I hope she will do so some day.
So who is Nick Vujicic and why is he so interesting and inspiring?
Nick is a 25-year-old man from Australia. He was born without arms and legs and no medical reason could be given for this condition.
Despite countless challenges and obstacles, he achieved what others might call impossible.
Now he travels all over the globe and shares his testimony with millions of people. He brings God’s love and hope to people in all situations and circumstances. He challenges people to overcome struggles and obstacles in life.
What can we all learn from Nick?
Most of us have healthy bodies. We have arms and legs, fingers and toes. We can walk, run, lift and write. There are so much we can do that Nick cannot do physically. Yet, he lives a life without limitation, while many of us live our life with limitation, if not physically, then mentally.
We don’t need a lot in life. We don’t have to be perfectly made or perfectly looking. Even with severe physical disability, we can still live a good life and live life to the fullest. All we really need is to have a heart of contentment and gratitude, to know that we are wonderfully made and to find the purpose God has for us.
Watching Nick’s video clip reinforced this lesson.
Every year during the holiday season, people spend a lot of time and money shopping and buying stuff. I am always amazed and wonder how much do we need.
How many toys do our children need? How many more video games are necessary? How many gadgets, sweaters, dresses, bags, shoes, etc. do we need?
In this country, most people already have more than needed. Our houses, our garages, our closets, our drawers, our shelves are filled with stuff, yet we still keep buying. We keep buying stuff we think we need, but in reality, we don’t need more.
We have the false sense that we need more to look good, feel good and be happy; we need to have better things in order to have self-esteem; and our kids need more toys and games to be smart and happy.
When I grew up, I didn’t have toys, let alone any educational toys or electronic games. I don’t think my brain development was affected in any negative way as a result.
I didn’t have many clothes, let alone nice clothes. My mother had to make everything for me, from inside to outside, from top to bottom. I don’t think I suffered any low self-esteem as a result. In a nutshell, I turned out O.K. without many nice things in life.
What I think I had was that I learned to value what I had. I developed a heart of contentment and gratitude. I am content with what I have, even though what I have is not the best or the most expensive.
I try to pass on this important life lesson to my kids.
I don’t overindulge them. I don’t buy them a lot of stuff. I want them to develop a heart of contentment and gratitude. I want them to value what they have, not envy what they don’t have.
Nothing thrills me more than hearing my kids say: “Mom, thanks for bringing us to …” or “Mom, thanks for buying us …”
When my kids were younger, they had brought home Santa’s wish list during the holiday season that they made at school. I wasn’t excited about getting those lists. I think instead of making Santa’s wish list of what they want, they should make a “Count my blessings” list. Instead of asking for more toys, they should share what they are thankful for.
As we come to the end of 2008 and look forward to the New Year 2009, let us all be thankful for what we have and what we are going to have.
Having a content heart is one of the greatest blessings in life. And that is what we really need.
For more information about Nick Vujicic, visit his website http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org or watch some video clips on YouTube. May you be inspired and touched by his story and testimony.
I wish every one of you a happy, healthy and blessed New Year!
Last week, a cousin living in Hungary sent me a YouTube link to a video clip about Nick Vujicic, a man without limbs.
The video was only a few minutes long, but it was very powerful. I felt so inspired and moved that I had to forward it to a few friends.
I even went to Oprah’s website to submit a suggestion for her "Oprah Winfrey Show." I sent it to one of her producers whom I recently read about in the UW-Madison Alumni magazine “On Wisconsin.”
Even though I don’t watch Oprah or other TV programs, I know Oprah has perhaps the most influential TV talk show in the world. I thought if she hasn’t already interviewed Nick Vujicic, I hope she will do so some day.
So who is Nick Vujicic and why is he so interesting and inspiring?
Nick is a 25-year-old man from Australia. He was born without arms and legs and no medical reason could be given for this condition.
Despite countless challenges and obstacles, he achieved what others might call impossible.
Now he travels all over the globe and shares his testimony with millions of people. He brings God’s love and hope to people in all situations and circumstances. He challenges people to overcome struggles and obstacles in life.
What can we all learn from Nick?
Most of us have healthy bodies. We have arms and legs, fingers and toes. We can walk, run, lift and write. There are so much we can do that Nick cannot do physically. Yet, he lives a life without limitation, while many of us live our life with limitation, if not physically, then mentally.
We don’t need a lot in life. We don’t have to be perfectly made or perfectly looking. Even with severe physical disability, we can still live a good life and live life to the fullest. All we really need is to have a heart of contentment and gratitude, to know that we are wonderfully made and to find the purpose God has for us.
Watching Nick’s video clip reinforced this lesson.
Every year during the holiday season, people spend a lot of time and money shopping and buying stuff. I am always amazed and wonder how much do we need.
How many toys do our children need? How many more video games are necessary? How many gadgets, sweaters, dresses, bags, shoes, etc. do we need?
In this country, most people already have more than needed. Our houses, our garages, our closets, our drawers, our shelves are filled with stuff, yet we still keep buying. We keep buying stuff we think we need, but in reality, we don’t need more.
We have the false sense that we need more to look good, feel good and be happy; we need to have better things in order to have self-esteem; and our kids need more toys and games to be smart and happy.
When I grew up, I didn’t have toys, let alone any educational toys or electronic games. I don’t think my brain development was affected in any negative way as a result.
I didn’t have many clothes, let alone nice clothes. My mother had to make everything for me, from inside to outside, from top to bottom. I don’t think I suffered any low self-esteem as a result. In a nutshell, I turned out O.K. without many nice things in life.
What I think I had was that I learned to value what I had. I developed a heart of contentment and gratitude. I am content with what I have, even though what I have is not the best or the most expensive.
I try to pass on this important life lesson to my kids.
I don’t overindulge them. I don’t buy them a lot of stuff. I want them to develop a heart of contentment and gratitude. I want them to value what they have, not envy what they don’t have.
Nothing thrills me more than hearing my kids say: “Mom, thanks for bringing us to …” or “Mom, thanks for buying us …”
When my kids were younger, they had brought home Santa’s wish list during the holiday season that they made at school. I wasn’t excited about getting those lists. I think instead of making Santa’s wish list of what they want, they should make a “Count my blessings” list. Instead of asking for more toys, they should share what they are thankful for.
As we come to the end of 2008 and look forward to the New Year 2009, let us all be thankful for what we have and what we are going to have.
Having a content heart is one of the greatest blessings in life. And that is what we really need.
For more information about Nick Vujicic, visit his website http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org or watch some video clips on YouTube. May you be inspired and touched by his story and testimony.
I wish every one of you a happy, healthy and blessed New Year!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Finding balance in mind, body and spirit
Woodbury Bulletin - 12/23/2008
Life is a balancing act, we all know and agree.
When people talk about finding balance in life, it is often about balance of work and family life, and about balance of the hectic lifestyle and stress management.
But I don’t think that is the most important area in our life that needs balance. What we truly need is to balance the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual dimensions of our live.
As human beings, we have body, mind and spirit. Our body needs nutrition and exercise, so do our mind and spirit.
Only when we learn to nurture our body, mind and spirit and keep them in balance, can we become more complete and live more fully.
The problem is that many people live one- or two-dimensional lives in a three- or four-dimensional world.
It is important to take good care of our body. Our body needs the right combination of nutrition and exercise. We need to eat healthy and exercise regularly in order to have a healthy body, live a long and productive life.
Healthy is a choice. We have to make right choices in our daily lives in order to stay healthy.
Keeping the body in good condition is important. It affects how we feel about ourselves. We feel better when we are healthy and in good shape.
However, some people focus too much attention on the physical dimension, on getting fit and having a great physical body, and on physical appearances, but they don’t know or neglect the fact that the body is not all what constitutes a human being.
In fact, our body is not the most essential thing. It is the vehicle that carries what is essential. It is “the temple of the Holy Spirit,” as the Bible says.
Like our body, our mind also needs appropriate nutrients and exercise to function well and stay healthy.
Human beings are intellectual. If we don’t develop our mind, gain knowledge through education, our potential will be handicapped and limited.
We live in a fast-paced world with all the conveniences that modern life has to offer. Our lives are filled with activities that either don’t give us much time to think or take away our ability to think.
We cannot let the news media, the entertainment and advertisement industry dictate our lives and tell us what we need, what to buy, how to live and how to think.
Garbage in, garbage out. If we let too much garbage and negativity go into our mind, our mind will be corrupted and will produce more garbage and negativity.
We need to care for our mind by paying attention to what we read, hear and watch. We need to nourish and exercise our mind by using them to learn, to grow and to think.
We become what we think. A healthy mind brings a healthy life.
Human beings are also emotional and relational. We cry, laugh and feel. We need affection, kindness, encouragement form each others. Our emotional status and the quality of our relationships can determine our quality of life.
Among the four dimensions of life, spiritual dimension is the most controversial and the most difficult one to understand because its existence is not as obvious as the other dimensions.
But something that we cannot see and touch can still exist. It’s important to understand that what’s visible is temporary, but what’s invisible is eternal.
Every human being has a longing from the depths of the soul that cannot be fulfilled by anything in this world.
If we can humble ourselves enough, we will realize that we need faith in order to live a more meaningful life at a deeper level, to become a complete, whole human being, to live life to the fullest.
Without faith, our lives are empty and meaningless.
Without faith, we end up wondering how to make sense out of life and out of the world around us.
In her memoir “A House with Four Rooms,” author Rumer Godden says, “There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.”
“Mind, body, and spirit act in concert to determine health and well-being,” said Dr. Carl Thoresen.
If we can get the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual balancing act together, it will be easier to find balance in other areas of life.
As we celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus this week, let us focus more attention on the spiritual dimension of our life.
Let us find the real balance in life: body, mind and spirit.
Life is a balancing act, we all know and agree.
When people talk about finding balance in life, it is often about balance of work and family life, and about balance of the hectic lifestyle and stress management.
But I don’t think that is the most important area in our life that needs balance. What we truly need is to balance the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual dimensions of our live.
As human beings, we have body, mind and spirit. Our body needs nutrition and exercise, so do our mind and spirit.
Only when we learn to nurture our body, mind and spirit and keep them in balance, can we become more complete and live more fully.
The problem is that many people live one- or two-dimensional lives in a three- or four-dimensional world.
It is important to take good care of our body. Our body needs the right combination of nutrition and exercise. We need to eat healthy and exercise regularly in order to have a healthy body, live a long and productive life.
Healthy is a choice. We have to make right choices in our daily lives in order to stay healthy.
Keeping the body in good condition is important. It affects how we feel about ourselves. We feel better when we are healthy and in good shape.
However, some people focus too much attention on the physical dimension, on getting fit and having a great physical body, and on physical appearances, but they don’t know or neglect the fact that the body is not all what constitutes a human being.
In fact, our body is not the most essential thing. It is the vehicle that carries what is essential. It is “the temple of the Holy Spirit,” as the Bible says.
Like our body, our mind also needs appropriate nutrients and exercise to function well and stay healthy.
Human beings are intellectual. If we don’t develop our mind, gain knowledge through education, our potential will be handicapped and limited.
We live in a fast-paced world with all the conveniences that modern life has to offer. Our lives are filled with activities that either don’t give us much time to think or take away our ability to think.
We cannot let the news media, the entertainment and advertisement industry dictate our lives and tell us what we need, what to buy, how to live and how to think.
Garbage in, garbage out. If we let too much garbage and negativity go into our mind, our mind will be corrupted and will produce more garbage and negativity.
We need to care for our mind by paying attention to what we read, hear and watch. We need to nourish and exercise our mind by using them to learn, to grow and to think.
We become what we think. A healthy mind brings a healthy life.
Human beings are also emotional and relational. We cry, laugh and feel. We need affection, kindness, encouragement form each others. Our emotional status and the quality of our relationships can determine our quality of life.
Among the four dimensions of life, spiritual dimension is the most controversial and the most difficult one to understand because its existence is not as obvious as the other dimensions.
But something that we cannot see and touch can still exist. It’s important to understand that what’s visible is temporary, but what’s invisible is eternal.
Every human being has a longing from the depths of the soul that cannot be fulfilled by anything in this world.
If we can humble ourselves enough, we will realize that we need faith in order to live a more meaningful life at a deeper level, to become a complete, whole human being, to live life to the fullest.
Without faith, our lives are empty and meaningless.
Without faith, we end up wondering how to make sense out of life and out of the world around us.
In her memoir “A House with Four Rooms,” author Rumer Godden says, “There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.”
“Mind, body, and spirit act in concert to determine health and well-being,” said Dr. Carl Thoresen.
If we can get the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual balancing act together, it will be easier to find balance in other areas of life.
As we celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus this week, let us focus more attention on the spiritual dimension of our life.
Let us find the real balance in life: body, mind and spirit.
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