From the ethics to the existence of God, I seem to wrestle every bit of the tradition. At times, I end up agreeing, at times, not so much. Although I must admit there is something about the wrestle I love and enjoy, I have often asked myself if it would in fact be better to not pass this heritage on to my children.

Today, my family and I were walking next to a river that flows near our home. It was a beautiful spring day: little green leaves peeking from the trees, first flowers popping from the ground, and water flowing nearby.

My older son, soon six years old, said to us: “Hey, we could thank God for this water!”

In that sacred moment, he and his three-year-old brother kneeled down on the river bank, crossed their fingers, and said a little prayer: “Thank you for this beautiful river. Amen.”

And then, off they went to continue with their adventures.

This moment reminded me something about the beauty of faith at its best. That is, when all the excess has been stripped away. Faith without the burden that comes from theological issues such as salvation, original sin, or atonement is still pure. And it’s mostly about thankfulness.

No, you don’t need religion of faith to be thankful.

But religion gives tools that help when speaking about abstract things that are hard to talk about. Thankfulness is a good example: when we experience something beautiful, even if it is not the doing of human hands, we still feel thankful and want to thank someone for it. God is language for expressing this emotion, actually thanking someone for the good we have been blessed with.

I could go on and on about what God means, whether or not you can talk to God, and many related topics. But that’s something for another time and another blog post. All I want to say today is: We have been blessed with a life full of beauty. Let’s be thankful!

Violence, fear, lack of resources, maybe the rockets fired by both Hamas and the Israeli army. Destruction. Even without taking sides in the peace negotiations, it’s clear that life in Gaza is tough.

With youth unemployment rates at 66% or higher depending on how you define youth (see this page for full statistics), there is a big group of young men without anything to do. They could become militants or terrorists, and some probably do.

A group of young men who call themselves Gaza Parkour Team have decided to take a different route and started practicing Parkour instead. I’m a big fan of parkour videos in general, but the setting these guys come from adds to their videos a new layer of awesomeness.

Hope is not something that either is there or isn’t. Hope is something you choose to have.

In the blog post, they wrote:

There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.

When I started my journey in the blogosphere, I spent a lot of time in Google Reader every day. Now, I check my feeds a few times a week. Based on the quote above, I am guessing this is the case with much more people than I had thought.

But what does it mean? Is RSS history? How are people following blogs these days? RSS was never the most intuitive solution but I am going to miss Google Reader when it is gone.

It only takes 13 minutes. Do it now.

“What goals do you have?”

“What are your big dreams?”

These are all good questions. But if we let them rule our world (as happens too often), they make us lose sight of joy.

Joy is in the little things that are already around us: children’s games, good food, reading a good book, just sitting quietly, baking a loaf of bread, listening to your favorite song. Joy is not found in the future but in the present.

Following dreams can bring us joy, but it does it through the process: when you immerse yourself in work that feels meaningful to you, you can feel joy. Reaching the goal rarely has the same effect.

So, today, take a minute and enjoy the life you already have. Look around you. Listen to the sounds of your home.

See if you can feel joy.

Today, I bumped into one of the many “count your blessings” type images circulating on the web. This one was really well done and had many great points about how you (or I — as the person looking at the picture) are healthier, wealthier and generally better off than most of the world’s population. I read it, nodding my head in agreement, until I made it to the end, where it said:

If you can read this message, you are more fortunate than 3 billion people in the world who cannot read it at all.

That stopped me on my tracks, and I couldn’t just move on to read the next inspirational thought of the day. I felt that this is something that should touch me, of all people. If I believe reading is close to the greatest thing out there, and want to help people live a good life, this fact should be important to me.

Luckily, the facts in the posted are not quite right. In 2012, according to the CIA fact book, there were only 793 million illiterate adults in the world. That’s still almost a billion.

Think about it: 793 million people who can’t read this blog post (or anything at all). The number of people who don’t have access to the post because of a lack of internet connectivity or savvy is a lot bigger than that.

How different would the world be if those numbers were close to zero?

Still, we don’t take action. Why is that?

I believe one of the reasons is that we are not proposing enough solutions. Whereas threats scare us and make us defensive, solutions inspire.

I’m not saying that the following idea will change everything, but I challenge you to watch it and not be inspired. Could stopping desertification be a big solution in stopping climate change as well?

The game is its own reward.

Examples:

1. Use your food leftovers as ingredients for new dishes
2. Instead of shopping and eating out, make it a picnic in the forest (make your own food)
3. Read a book (borrow it from the library for bonus points)
4. Create something: write a song, draw a picture, write a story
5. Ride your bike to work
6. Clean closets and get rid of items that are taking up space

Most of the ideas are obvious when you think about them. And as you play the game, I’m sure you will come up with ideas that are a lot more specific and imaginative.

Let’s play!

It changed my view on the food: what I used to view as a quick and slightly boring dish (put frozen fish fingers in the oven when you don’t have time to make real food) is actually a rather lengthy and interesting process when you do it yourself.

After spending an hour on making the fish fingers, the food even tasted better.

It could be that the ingredients were better… But I think more of it was because of the appreciation that comes from the work I put into making the food.

As Mark Bittman writes in Cooking Solves Everything:

Pride is a funny thing. A team of scientists from John Hopkins has suggested that expending effort can make food taste better. The scientists trained mice to press two different levers. When the critters pressed the first lever once, they got a sugary treat; they had to press the second lever fifteen times to get a similar reward. Later, when the mice were given equal access to both treats, they preferred the one they had to work harder to get in the first place.

But when reading to a five-year-old, for a long time, I have found this a bit tricky to do.

The books I remember from childhood are all books I read myself when I already knew how to read — at the age of ten or so… I can’t remember the details; what if they are too scary for a child of this age? So, I often pick books that I am sure are not too scary, and end up picking boring books.

This week, we decided to go with a more adventurous choice and started reading Ronia the Robber’s Daughter by Astrid Lindgren. The book is scary at times, but surprisingly, that’s not a bad thing at all. My son is eager to hear more, he lives the story, asks good questions, and in a way, I think he is even getting a little braver because of it. And I read the book with much more excitement than I would with a more boring book.

So, maybe once I’m done with this book, I will continue with some books from Hodgkinson’s recommendations: Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Robinson Crusoe, or even Narnia despite all of its battle scenes.

What do you read with children?