Know yourself

I really don't know where this blog is heading to, but I love the idea of writing about how and where I find  beauty in life.

If I ask myself what is beauty, I won't be able to give a proper answer. Because Beauty, after all, will be different for each of us. Different, and yet with a common grasp of the basic things that mould and shape our lives. Call them love, friendship, emotion, passion, growth, motivation...

But really, beyond this common grasp of things, it all gets haywire, ecclectic, blurred, it is all funky, isn't it? If we want to find beauty in our lives, we've got to know what matters for us. And that is the trouble sometimes, beause we don't always know what really matters for us, until it is gone, or until a great shock makes us realize it, or until we get much older.

It takes, I believe, some serious thinking. And it also requires to follow one's instinct and inspiration. It calls for reading, discussing with other people. It takes curiosity and imagination.

This is something I want to pass on to my kids. 

I try to be very ecclectic in the way I raise them.. We listen to many different sorts of music, we dig classic and hip hop and country and this and that. We tune in to English-speaking radios and sometimes other languages too, so that we are aware of the music of other languages. We read comics, novels, articles, magazines. We talk and talk and talk about various changing subjects. We try to learn and get interested and open to other ideas and forms of knowledge and interest. I try not to shut my kids away from the world, I strive not to be 'anti' or 'pro', even if I, too, have my strong opinions :) I like to remember and tell my kids (well, the eldest at least) that there are, for example, several religions, and also the possibility of no religion, and that it is okay, as long as it resonates with what you feel, and as long as it does not hurt anyone. I like to remind my kids that they are allowed to enjoy and like things that I don't like or enjoy, because well, we are family, but we are all different too. And we are all entitled to be just what we are. Not what anyone else woud like us to be.

And so day by day, I find beauty in knowing myself better, and in doing my best to help my kids know themselves better too.

I picked this image from this place, and I love the way it inspires you not to give up on yourself. Not easy sometimes, but worth the effort.