Skip to main content

Happy Back to School!

If every child returning to school could learn just one thing, I hope they'd learn to be kind. Kind to fellow students, teachers, parents, siblings, neighbours, strangers and kind to themselves. If you aren't kind, what does it matter if  you've got great marks? Why can't this new school year be the beginning of the end of bullying? Wouldn't it be wonderful if no child were ever bullied again?

I'd much rather my child learned kindness than math...okay, so I never liked math! Still, I hope every teacher will find those teachable moments to talk about kindness and be that one teacher every student remembers because she, or he, was the one that taught them to be kind. Don't make fun of the kid that's poor, shy, disabled or different. Invite them to play with you at recess, invite them to your birthday parties.

                                                                         
Me in Grade One, St. Boniface, Scarborough. I never went to kindergarten, but that's another story!


Speaking of kindness, remember that pile of books I'd planned to read this summer? Well, sad to say so far I've only read seven of them. Today I'll start reading number eight on the list, The Power of Kindness, Why Empathy Is Essential in Everyday Life. This book by Brian Goldman, MD, was a gift to my husband by our amazingly kind son, John...or John-Boy, as I still call him. Inside the book John wrote, "To the kindest man I know." I'll keep you posted.

As for the others on the list, I thoroughly enjoyed Robin by Dave Itzkoff (but it's a long read) also a gift from John-Boy, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Heather O'Neill (such a unique, edgy voice) and Game Change by Ken Dryden (a fascinating read). The book I enjoyed the most, though, wasn't even on my list! My friend and fellow writer, Lucy, suggested three weeks ago that I'd enjoy the book she was reading, Forgiveness, A Gift from My Grandparents by Mark Sakamoto. Intrigued, I saw it in a lovely little book shop in Thornbury and knew I had to buy it. I couldn't put it down. This book, a memoir, is the 2018 Canada Reads winner and a national bestseller, all with great reason. I was very happy to read in Sakamoto's acknowledgments a thank you to a gifted editor, Allyson Latta. Last year I attended Allyson's writing retreat in Italy. She is indeed a meticulous editor and a kind person.




I love this picture. It's from a postcard I picked up years ago at Word On The Street for Retreat by Random House Publishing. 



Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 6, 2018 at 3:23 PM

    Oh, Nancy. . what a thoughtful and important message. Thank you for the reminder that kindness makes a difference.

    ReplyDelete
  2. NancySeptember 6, 2018 at 4:04 PM

    Thanks Jan. We need kindness now more than ever.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Parenting A Child With Drug-Resistant Epilepsy

The inaugural meeting of Nights of Sharing was held last night at Epilepsy Toronto.The frigid temperatures and the ill health of some children meant it was a small--but mighty--group with lots of time to ask questions and share stories. Richard and I were happy to spearhead the group and to share our 30-year journey of raising a child with drug resistant epilepsy. From the feedback we received parents with recently diagnosed children are eager to learn from the wisdom of parents who've gone before them. I guess that makes us the old parents and they the young parents ! Still, we who've been through it want to offer guidance and share what we've learned on what is a difficult--sometimes horrible--journey. I've even been asked if we could videotape the sessions so that parents from outside Toronto can participate. Sometimes I forget how lucky we are to live in a large city with lots of resources. One young Mom came from Niagara. I'm so glad the meeting was helpfu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Did This Happen To You Too?

I have a confession to make: Ever since COVID-19 struck, I’ve found it difficult to read even the best of books. I love nothing more than hunkering down with a fabulous read but last year my mind darted all over. I couldn’t sit still and I couldn’t focus on any book. Did this also happened to you? By the end of the year I had a stack of fourteen books on my bedside table all crying out for me to continue reading them. In the living room there were another twelve books and one or two books in the car. I tried to read them. I really did. Books have always been my escape but there was no escaping COVID-19 and the horrific stories of sickness and death. It didn’t help that my two eldest sons, John and Mike are both General Medicine Internists working in hospitals on the frontlines. Or, that my husband is working with Toronto Public Health. Fear took over. I gathered the books I’d started and put them all   downstairs on my read-one-day shelf . I decided I’d wait until the New Year,...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Current Favourite Book

I'm so glad today is the last day of February. For a short month it was long and brutal! I can't wait for the snow, the cold and the grey to vanish. Usually I go for a long walk three to five times a week, but not this month. It has either been too cold or too icy. On the upside, I've had more time for reading.  This year I've recorded in my Book Lover's Diary the title and author of each book I've read and I've rated each book with one to four stars. My Mom gave me the diary in 2000 but this is the first year I'm dutifully recording every book I read. So far I've read eight books, or almost one a week. Six of the eight are non-fiction: Becoming , by Michelle Obama; A Smell of Burning, A Memoir of Epilepsy by Colin Grant; Educated , by Tara Westover;  Walk It Off, A Memoir by Ruth Marshall;   Intrepid Soul, A Memoir of Returning Home ,   by Leanda Michelle and Women Who Walk With Wolves , by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. The two fiction books wer...
3 comments
Read more