Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Contentment is Peace

For learning to happen in ANY situation, safety and some peace are required.

Can there be too much peace? For learning, yes. Learning requires mental arousal. If an environment is so still and barren that one's curiosity isn't sparked, then people might be closer to a state of sleep than of excited curiosity. Life can be too dull and quiet for learning to spontaneously happen.

Can there be too little peace? Yes, and in many ways. There can be too much noise, stimulation and chaos. So finding the balance place and the comfort level is part of creating a peaceful home.

Peace is a prerequisite to natural, curious, intellectual exploration.

What is peace, then, in a home with children? Contentment is peace.

Is a child happy to be where he is? That is a kind of peace. If he wakes up disappointed, that is not peace, no matter how quiet the house is or how clean and "feng shuid" his room is.

Peace, like learning, is largely internal.

SandraDodd.com/peace/noisy
photo by Sandra Dodd
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2 comments:

  1. you can read my mind!! a friend posted this link recently:
    zero waste

    and i haven't been able to stop thinking about it and how it sort of bugged me. my kids would not want that much sparseness and neither would i. where would all the scraps for cutting go or the thing they liked and then stopped liking and then liked again one day and it was still there to enjoy. sure we get rid of things. but we like to have things too. there's some kind of balance i guess between having too much and too little. but that's not for one person in the family to decide.

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  2. For me, a peaceful home is one of laughter and happiness and contentment. One where respect is a 2 way street with all involved for all ages and conversations about any topic are encouraged and explored, regardless of the hour.

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