March 22, 2023

Notes by Akshera Mukkamala

Review

Last class, our story was about a penguin named Suman. He loved candy, cookies, and jellybeans.  He would run to his room and eat jellybeans so he wouldn’t eat dinner. One day he had to go to a party so he went to get a penguin suit.  He went to the mall with his mother to try out some suits but none of them fit. He was upset, so his mom took him home and told him, “There are three things you can do: First you should stop eating junk food, second you should start eating healthier, and third you should exercise”. Soon Suman the penguin was fitting into his new penguin suit and he was looking dapper. This story is about caring for yourself and others.  When you care for yourself you must be strict, but when you are caring for others you must be kind, like Suman’s mom was. This brings us to our RAW from last week- eat everything that is put on your plate, be strict when caring for yourself.

Story

This week’s story brings us to a fountain. Once upon a time, A boy was walking through the woods, when he heard a sad, singing sort of cry. He began to follow the sound, and he came to a big, gray fountain. The sad sobbing came from inside the fountain, so the boy cleared away all the dirty stuff from the fountain. In the fountain he saw a group of gray fish swimming in circles around the fountain, and the fish were producing the sobbing, singing sound. He was a little bit confused, so he tried to catch one of the fish, but when he put his arm in the water his arm turned gray. As it turned gray he became sad, and he understood how the fish felt. Quickly he pulled his arm out of the water and ran. As he ran he looked at his arm and it stayed gray. The sadness stayed with him. He tried everything to cheer himself up, but nothing worked. Then he thought, “If I tried to make the fish happy, if I tried to make the environment around me, the Earth happy, then maybe I will be happy too.” And then on he made it his purpose to care for the environment. As he did so, and encouraged others to do the same, the environment around him became greener. As the environment became greener, his arm returned to his normal color, and when the gray was all gone, he started feeling happy again. He decided to return to the fountain and when he did he saw that the fish were swimming and singing happily. 

Lesson

We start with rules. Although we may not like them, rules are necessary to keep everything functioning properly. However, when there is love, there is harmony, and rules are not as important, almost unnecessary. Our parents love us, but we cannot show someone that love. It isn’t tangible. However, love takes form in the way they care for us. There is no rule book they follow, because that love naturally expresses itself as caring for who is loved. The love they have for you makes them care for you. That is harmony. This boy had love for the fish, so when he felt their suffering, he wanted to make them happy. Without being told what to do, he took care of the environment, making the fish happy. When the earth is happy, we are too. To develop a relationship with the earth, or anyone else, we must give time. When we appreciate our earth, it keeps us happy and healthy.

Activity

We took one minute to find 3 things we could recycle. We should look for the recycling symbol, because there are so many things that can be recycled that we don’t know of.

RAW

This week’s RAW is to spend 10 minutes each day outside.