For December's online Family Program we were fortunate to have friends join us from Iowa, Florida and Virginia, as well as several Vermonters, and explored the themes of generosity and self-restraint. We began by introducing ourselves and sharing something we've been noticing in nature, such as the longer nights, sunny days, icicles forming, colder weather, and oranges harvested from orange trees (guess where!).
We then acted out the story "Cookies" from Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel. In the story Toad makes some delicious cookies, which he generously shares with Frog. The cookies are so delicious that Frog and Toad have a hard time stopping themselves from eating them all. Frog realizes that they need to practice will power. They try putting the cookies in a box, tying the box with string, and putting the tied box high on a shelf, but each time they realize they still have access to the cookies. Finally, Frog generously decides to throw the rest of the cookies to the birds, feeling good about practicing will power. Toad, on the other hand, invites Frog to keep the will power, as he is going to go bake a cake. We discussed how sometimes it can be an act of generosity to practice will power, or self-restraint, such as when we restrain ourselves from saying or doing something that might cause harm to ourselves or others.
We practiced a brief meditation exploring how with each in-breath we can experience gratitude for the oxygen shared with us by plants and trees, and with each out-breath we can experience generosity as we share carbon dioxide with the plants and trees.
We then demonstrated making peanut butter pine cone bird feeders and ended by listening to the Temple bell and sounding a group OM.
