A father's chronicle (Rereading a book)

I was staring into my bookshelf and wondering what are the books that I've there... also trying to atone for my many sins - I have the tendency to buy more books than I could read!

At the middle section, was a book that my mom bought for my birthday 2 years back. I was only able to start on a few chapters before life caught up with me (excuses again, but that's all I can come up with )... so, I stretched forward and grabbed it. Second attempt at a good book.

Interestingly, the title is one that I really like - What Our Children Teach Us by Piero Ferrucci. For those who like to read this series of my following, this book is very much like it. It is written by a father about his encounters with his children... difference, of course, is that he is trained in psychology.... while I am not.

Anyway, I want to share a few lines on the chapter on Attention.

Without presence, there is no relationship, no reality. To think about past and future is of course so much easier than living in the present. Transported away from the present, we find everything: fantasy, worries, memories. Worlds far more intriguing than watching a child jump.

....

There is a sense of healthy lazines that I have learned in being with children: Slow down, take it easy, be here, enjoy yourself. You are allowed to have no purpose.

No purpose.... hmmmm... no purpose. We don't do that often in real life. Go to meetings, you have the agenda drawn up. You go to shopping mall ... well, a shirt to "hunt". Even the other day when we were watching a movie (Chicken Little), a parent popped the question to her children immediately after the show - So what's the moral of the story? (btw, the children were tasked to write about what they learn when they reach home. Boy....)

But with children? We need to slow down and be here. Be here. It is a lost art to "be here".

I guess, we have somehow been "programmed" to have a purpose in everything.

Enjoy yourself.... You are allowed to have no purpose (when you are with me).

Actually, I like it very much. I like to walk to my children and just sit around. Just to be beside them. No purpose.

I am here. I am here, now.