iamkrystal

 One skill—and mindset—you naturally develop while raising a child is this: no matter the mess, you can handle it. Even if food gets scattered everywhere, cereal covers the entire living room, or dish soap is poured and smeared all over the floor, it can all be cleaned up. Things that used to make me anxious—what if it spills, what if it gets messy—don’t bother me like they used to. I’ve grown more lenient. Sometimes I just say, “Sure, go ahead. I’ll clean it up later.” It comes from a mix of love and a sense of responsibility. What else can I do? It’s up to me to take care of it. Yesterday, Liam—who finds it nearly impossible to stay still—was quietly watching TV in a chair. Suddenly, he called out for help. I found him stuck in the chair. At first, I wasn’t too worried. If he got in, he should be able to get out, right? But nope—it wasn’t that simple. I called my husband. We tried taking Liam into the shower and lathering him up with soap to slip him out, but even that didn’t wo...

 The title caught me off guard at first—and reading the book surprised me even more. I was amazed by how deeply the author explored the nature of thought and expressed it so clearly in writing. With wisdom and insight wrapped in beautiful, gentle language, the author also lays bare his own vulnerability and fragility, making the book all the more powerful. Through one person’s life, we encounter the wisdom of meditation, deep reflections, and the painful days that followed his departure from monastic life, his father's euthanasia, and ultimately, how he comes to terms with his own life. I read it in one sitting. The latter part of the book left a heaviness in my heart and a lingering afterthought. I truly, wholeheartedly recommend this book. “Even a ten-year-old child could probably explain what inner beauty is—patience, generosity, honesty, confidence, the ability to forgive, to think from others’ perspectives, empathy, listening, compassion, understanding, thoughtfulness... Every...

 I started highlighting sentences from the very first chapter. Before I knew it, I forgot my original goal of learning the mindset of working and became completely immersed in the sentences and content. Every time I opened the book, I received realistic motivation and a firm mindset with diligence. And I realized there’s no shortcut. Today, too, I must quietly and steadily invest time into whatever I do. "That sense of freedom, I think, came from two things. First, it was the confidence that I knew this topic well. I felt assured that I was speaking about something I knew well (of course, ideally, this should always be the case with every lecture, but embarrassingly, that wasn’t always true). This belief ultimately became a belief in myself, and that in itself was a purely joyful feeling. Come to think of it, before I get much older, I hope there will be more things that allow me to have such a solid belief in myself. And for that, there’s no special secret—just quietly and steadi...

 I just recently started teaching Sunday School, and as an inexperienced teacher, I spent yesterday looking for pictures, coloring them, and cutting them out to prepare. As I was working, Liam, who was bored, came over to me. He asked if he could color my pictures too. Feeling a bit annoyed, I handed him one of my failed attempts. He must have enjoyed it because he asked for more pictures, so I printed some out for him.  While I was busy with my own work, I told him not to bother me. Later, when I looked over, I found him carefully coloring inside the lines, taking his time and filling every corner neatly. I guess he’s learned a lot from Head Start. Not long ago, he would have given up easily, said he couldn’t do it, and his coloring would have been weak and messy, with no clear distinction between inside and outside the lines. But now, seeing him so focused and coloring so beautifully, I was overwhelmed with so many emotions—pride, admiration, tenderness, joy, and love. ...