Responding with Love

The sun never says to the earth,
"You owe me."
Look what happens with a love like that.
It lights up the whole sky!
         - Hafiz, Sufi poet

Today's elementary lesson from the LOVE WILL GUIDE US curriculum focused on the third Source of Unitarian Universalist beliefs:  "wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life."  A story from Sufism, a mystical facet of Islam, demonstrates responding to negativity with gentleness and love.

We learned a little bit about the ancient religious practice of Sufism, and the whirling meditative dance of Sufi devotees.  A story from Sufism, "The Dervish in the Ditch", prompted the children to explore how they would respond to meanness, and challenged them to think of ways they could respond with kindness and understanding rather than retaliation.  Children were also guided into distinguishing between situations that could safely be responded to with gentleness, and situations that require adult intervention.

AS A FAMILY ..... you are encouraged to engage your child frequently in role playing scenarios that could come up in their everyday life.  Can they step into someone else's shoes to understand behavior that might at first be interpreted as "mean", and then respond with kindness?  An example might be one student bumping into another in the school hallway.  Were they being intentionally mean?  Or might they have been so preoccupied with their own problems and worries that they simply didn't notice?  One way to respond would be to retaliate - to push or shove back, or plot to "get even".  A Sufi approach would be to mentally wish them a better day, and then calmly set the incident aside.  Can they differentiate when a situation might be unsafe for them, and the best response would be to seek out adult intervention?  An example could be bullying.

Encourage your child to try to live a life full of goodness and love because that is how we will become the best people we can be.