(If you have talked with friends and are looking to become a part of the “Feelings & Fables” community, just click on <Join Us!> )
WAYS TO USE
A Really Good Habit: As you continue with the review and revising of the letters and stories, and as you continue to set up discussions with your friends and loved ones, using “Feelings & Fables” with grow into a very satisfying and rewarding habit. This is communicating, and it is growth. It is learning about each other and learning about what to believe. This can become togetherness, and guidance.
The Concept: You receive a full set of six “Feeling & Fables” installments in one PDF to save. But then every other week use receive one “Feelings & Fables” letter and story as a Word document, with an email every week highlighting some points of interest or ideas that you might want to focus your thoughts on. You can use these documents as a foundation for your own versions, adding points particular to your family, or changing the views I have to better fit what you want your own loved ones to know and discuss, all just by changing a few lines – if you want.
Too Little Time: We all know that there is too little time to all the things we want, so my hope is that these letters and stories give you a jump start on the important values discussions that will make your family happier and healthier, both in values and in spirit. Plus, every day we are bombarded with too much advice, most of which doesn’t fit the ideas we want our own family to know and believe.
It doesn’t seem to end: And then, we’re pulled in 1000 different directions, everything claiming importance, so that we feel guilty taking even a few minutes “just to think”. We have to please the boss so we can keep our jobs to keep food on the table! We have to take the kids to practices, extra lessons, and afterschool meetings at clubs and at church or temple or mosque. I think we almost have to feel that there must be enough information and guidance out there so that your family will grow up right without too much more from you. But you know that that is not quite right.
Can you imagine? But what if someone gave you a small ‘responsibility’, a ‘chore’, to set aside a little time to think through the values you want your family to hold, and what if this was focused on a little area, already written out, so you could either use it as it is, or just rewrite a few lines to make it fit your own views? What if this ‘assignment’ gave you the chance, the excuse if you will, to say, “I’ll be there in just a few minutes. Let me finish this…” so that you could have a reason to take the time to spend some time on something you know is important to your family.
A tool for you: And can you imagine having something written, a prop, to start a family discussion with “I want to read you something I received the other day…” so you could avoid the “We should talk…” opening that always brings the response, “Oh Mom…!” or “Dad!!!” And you could print this and pass it around so your husband, your kids, your parents- your granddaughter- will have something real to focus on, to think about, and to take to heart.
To start a change for the better: All you need to do is subscribe to the Feelings& Fables” series that appeals to you. You’ll receive a full set of six letters and stories in PDF form so you will always have an unchanged original.And then every other week you’ll get one set of a letter and story so that you have two weeks to read them, think about them, change what you want, if anything, and then discuss with your loved ones. Two weeks for all of you to focus on an idea and really develop your family thoughts about it. And on the off-week I’ll send a reminder email (so you have another ‘excuse’ to take some time) with mention of a point I think worth focusing on. Two weeks go by and you get another email with a new letter and story pair.
Painless:All you need to do is subscribe to a series and wait for the emails. As the letter and story sets come to you, set aside 5 – 10 minutes for a “small chore you have to take care of” so you can think about the ideas. And then share them. And discuss them.
So Join Us! Look at the different series – Love, Life, Learning, Work, Inner Spirit, Friends & Family, or the Mix series which will be an original set from each category. Pick a series that you will think will help you and your family the most. For less than $10 you may think you should get them all, but reviewing and discussing all these series over two weeks would be a lot of work. 2 – 3 would be plenty. Click <Join Us!> This will be fun; it shouldn’t be a burden.
I hope you can start now: Click <Join Us!> Pick out one series or more, subscribe, and I will send you the full set of “Feelings and Fables” to start your reading. I’ll also send an expanded piece of ideas I have for using the letters and stories in different ways, so you can use them to select or develop a method you think works best. And then on the start day of the series the following week, You will start receiving the letter and fable and the weeks email about points and tips and ideas. And with a simple subscription, you will have started to build your toolkit for helping your family to grow healthier and happier and stronger so they can prosper in this world.
Jack