February 01, 2025

Quote of the Week

"Praise crazy. Praise sad. Praise the path on which we're led. Praise the roads on earth and water. Praise the eater and the eaten. Praise beginnings; praise the end. Praise the song and praise the singer." -- Joy Harjo

Tashi And The Monk

This week we invite you to enjoy this Emmy-winning documentary film about a brave social experiment in service and kindness atop a mountain in India....

"...Buddhist Monk Lobsang was trained under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama but 8 years ago he left behind a life as a spiritual teacher in the United States to create a unique community in the foothills of the Himalayas which rescues orphaned and neglected children. The community is called Jhamtse Ghatsal "a garden of love and compassion". 

5 year-old Tashi is the newest arrival. Her mother recently passed away and she’s been abandoned by her alcoholic father. Wild and troubled, Tashi is struggling to find her place amongst 84 new siblings.

Lobsang has channeled his own unhappy childhood into an opportunity for other ‘uninvited guests of the universe’ to avoid a similar fate. But can the community’s love and compassion transform Tashi’s alienation and tantrums into a capacity to make her first real friend?"

We recommend gathering with grown children and family to savor this movie. 

Reading Corner

Story: How the Kangaroo Got Her Pouch
Book: Pacific Island legends: tales from Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, and Australia
Authors: Nancy Bo Flood, Berret E Strong, William Flood; Illustrator: Connie J Adams
Ages: 12 and up

"An old blind wombat, who is a sky-god in disguise, is treated kindly by a mother kangaroo, and offers her a way of keeping her joey close by—a pouch on her belly to carry him in. The kangaroo accepts and asks that the same gift be given to the other marsupials. The one with a generous heart wishes to include others when good fortune comes her way..." Read on here for this aboriginal creation legend. 

We gratefully sourced this story from this book (pp. 248) where it originally appeared as one of the 43 stories translating oral wisdom from Pacific islands. 

Be the Change

Encourage children in your family or those around you to give an extra-warm smile, a cookie, a hug, hand write a note of acknowledgment or do something nice for when they come across someone who is feeling angry, isolated -- just to remind them they are still a warmly invited guest of the universe.