365 days project 2. Day 52. Happiness is just a book away

   I always loved reading. When I was a little girl I would read all the fairytales I would find in our library and my grandparents' library, any book, no matter how old and wrinkled, if it had illustrations or not (though I loved to look at the pictures). I loved being my favorite characters' fellow and go through a multitude of adventures together, but what I loved the most about fairytales were the happy endings. I always enjoyed that part because no matter what happened everything was ok in the end and the good prevailed. 

   Books have always been my friends, my comfort, my heaven. They have taught me lessons of true, deep, amazing friendships, eternal love and wisdom conquered through a series of surpassed challenges. Not all the books have a happy end just like not all life stories do but for me books themselves are my happy ending... of a day. No matter how stressful or hard the day was, books always make me smile and bring back that inner peace.
   See? Hapiness is just a book away... at least in my case :)

Day 77. Pride and prejudice

   People are different and they each have their own opinions and their own tastes. We know that already. It's the weird strong beliefs that some people have that shocked me today. 
   I announced the kids the dance class was about to start when a little girl of about 4 years old became very upset and told me she didn't want to dance because her mom thinks "dance is such a stupid thing to do" and "our Lord doesn't like us to dance". 
   Can you imagine how many times that mother had to repeat those two sentences to that little girl so that she would strongly believe in it and behave accordingly? I know how christians are. I've been there, I've done that. And I still consider myself a christian, just not a fanatic one anymore. But doing this to a child is, in my opinion, destructive. It's one thing if YOU, the adult, believe something because of your experience and the influence some people had on you and it's another thing to force your little one to believe in the same things as you do, to set boundaries so tight that he couldn't be free anymore. 
   I bet that little girl has more rules than rights and I'm honestly sorry for that. Yes, you might say: "Why does it matter if she's happy like that? Why does it matter if her parents love her and give her everything she needs to grow up and be on her own?" You know, this beautiful life God gave us each is not only about the basic needs. It's also about discovering the outer world and setting your own particular rules to guide your life around. 
   I'm amazed some people can be like that when they say they believe in a loving God. Isn't it written in the same Bible we all believe in that “I have the right to do anything, but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything but I will not be mastered by anything?" (1 Corinthians 6:12) It's the purpose you set that makes it a sin. How can a little child sin while dancing? How can dance therapy be a sin or even ballet? And how can someone get to be a dancer without jumping and dancing around the room since he was so little he could barely walk? There are many people in the world who would tell you that dancing saved their life when everything else was ruined.

   But in the end, it all comes down to pride and prejudice and it's a pitty. We should think twice before acting and even three times before telling our child to stop dancing because it's a stupid thing to do. He can't make his own decisions yet so why not let him explore and know the world first and only HELP him make good decisions?