Recognizing that we are part of something bigger than ourselves and that our actions account for only about 80% of the outcome, with 20% firmly outside of our control, allows us to take our fears less seriously. This keeps us from harming others, especially children, when we actually mean well. For example, worrying so much that we only communicate the bad, mistaken, or insufficient things children do. Thinking that if we do not address these, they will become a big problem, that the kid will grow up to be a failure, and so on. We end up looking for problems to address, but forget to praise, support, and love. We forget to communicate the positive. We forget the value of patience and importance of time in the human refinement and maturation process. The children end up feeling that he/she is never good enough, struggling to find the confidence necessary to take risks, or relate deeply for fear that the same situation will return. The situation where only a small part of them will be addressed by any ensuing relationship. The part that has to do with perfecting, with worrying about what others consider good enough. That part is but a fraction of a human being. Let us not continue to raise such incomplete generations.
More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate.” ― Roy T. Bennett
P.S. Spirituality means living with and honoring the awareness that things in life are to a large extent exactly the way they should be and that even the worst tragedy has positive effects which we cannot forsee while the most positive of good luck carries negatives which we do not suspect. And with this awareness, humanity as a species is no longer as desperate to survive. Whether we live or die simply means life is taking its course. This is by no means a call to devalue human life. On the contrary. We are able release the attachment to status, comfort, and competition in order to truly live fully.