As many of you know, I love to read. Whether it is billboards, cereal boxes, novels, or the newspaper, I will read it. Well that is except for junk mail which just goes straight in the garbage where it belongs.
A few months ago I was reading a woman's magazine and a famous tv actress was talking about how her family plays Roses and Thorns at dinner. Each family member takes a turn talking about at least one good thing (a rose) and one bad thing (a thorn). According to ABC News, President Obama and his family do it to.
I love the idea of doing this at the dinner table. Everyone deserves the spotlight at least for a few minutes each day. It gives everyone a chance to be heard and to share the good and the bad. To often we shrug off the bad and don't even acknowledge it is there. This lets you talk about it and let it out. As a mom I want my daughters to share the good AND the bad with their dad and me.
This weekend in the Parade supplement there was also an article called "The Lists That Keep on Giving". A husband and wife who were single parents with grown children and who married later in life are often away from each other due to their jobs. They started keeping lists to share with each other at the end of the day to stay connected.
As she wrote, "The last thing you want at the end of a full day is a list of nothing to share." Those mundane things that many just ignore or give the barest thoughts to end up in the scrap heap of their mind never to be mulled over or contemplated, never enjoyed or savored. What about those things that you read or hear that strike a chord inside you but you never talk about them? How often do we blindly just get through the day?
Both Roses and Thorns and the idea of sharing lists is all about enjoying life, sharing it, learning from it, and laughing at it. It may not all be a bed of roses and sometimes we may shed a few drops of blood (and sometimes it seems a little bit of our soul) in the process but it is our life and we only have one so why not appreciate the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly.
Monday, October 25, 2010
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9 comments:
Oh yes! Great idea! We do that too! We call it something else though. Highs and Lows. The wonderful thing is that we always have so many more highs than lows and it helps us all appreciate and value each other.
Family is everything. Beautiful post!
I really like that idea. I've talked about positive things, but not negative. This is great!
I saw a movie where a family shared highs and lows every day and I was jealous. Because I doubt that would ever last in my house.
I think this is a great idea!! And you are so right - we need to talk about the positives and the negatives. Otherwise we aren't really living and sharing life, I don't think :)
This is a very good thing. I usually have the kids share one thing about what they did in school. But I think I am going to to try this one out.
This is a good idea. Currently, we recap the highlights of the day with our almost-5 year old, but maybe in a couple years when my 2 year old grows up some, we can do this with the whole family.
I love it. We do something similar, but not every night in the same concept.I try to get my boys to talk about the bad as well, but sometimes they won't.
I just love this idea! My Diego is still a little small to appreciate this kind of convo just yet, but in a half a year or so we might be able to get it going and have everyone participate!!! Such a wonderful way to end each day.
Ohhh I really like this idea!!
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