Teenage Squash

Boy, you just can't leave the vegetable garden alone for one day. If you do, watch out! Those vegetables grow from babies to troublesome teenagers overnight. Then you have to deal with them--strictly and lovingly.

Before we left for a long weekend, i grated up 10 big summer squash. I came home four days later find 5 more sizable squash.

Strict yet loving-accepting parenting forecasts the best outcome for teens. Overbalancing on one or the other spells trouble.

How do we walk this line in our own daily lives?

We are not following an "If it feels good, do it" path or an "If it feels good, then it must be right" path. That's too much acceptance.

On the other hand, we are not forcing ourselves to meditate for 60 minutes at four o'clock in the morning, no matter what. That's too strict and makes the body (and mind) contract.

We practice kindness, yet we also have to make an effort. We aim for a consistency of practice, about the same length of time (even if that's "only" 5 minutes) at about the same time every day.

Now i have make some more effort at harvesting summer squash. Maybe i'll practice kindness, to myself, by giving them away.