Welcome to OBV! I told others, but putting together this carnival actually isn’t much more work than many of my other posts. I hope you come back and check them out!

ari

Welcome to OBV! Thanks for your kind words. You happened to visit when I have a blog carnival up, but I hope you come back and check out what I have to say on the subject myself.

ari

Thank you so much for the thoughtful comment you left on my site. AND for hosting this carnival. Putting all this together takes time, I know, and I am enjoying the good posts that you discovered! G.

Grace’s last blog post..What are the basic ABCs of creativity?

Glad to hear you found value in what I said. I can see how it must be hard with an older brother who is fearless and strong.

I think it just comes down to encouraging Dylan to be who he is, whatever that means, doesn’t it? He doesn’t have to do anything to prove anything. He doesn’t have to do anything to please anyone but himself. Being sensitive doesn’t mean he’s weak, gentle or effeminate.

About him and hockey — well, this is pure speculation here, but it makes some sense to me. He’s either trying to assert his “masculine” side or there is something beneath his “sensitive” exterior. Sensitive means just that — we have very able antennas. We pick up signals other people don’t, and weak signals feel strong to us. So we have to limit our exposures — which makes everyone, including ourselves, feel that we are gentle and timid. Well, they’d be cautious, too, if their senses were as touchy as ours! It has nothing to do with being mild-mannered or sweet-natured. I’m sure you’ve heard of a very sensitive man named Kurt Cobain.

If he’s doing it trying to prove something, he may not enjoy hockey as much as he thinks he would or he pretends to be. But then, it may release something in him that were not unleashable elsewhere. Either way, it’s great that he’s taking initiative to explore and you’re encouraging him to!

I myself listen to very heavy, dark and angry music, and make music like that some of the times as well. I think the two reasons I mentioned above are very much involved here — for obvious reasons, I’m trying not to put too much weight on proving my masculinity or whatever, though really, it’s an issue I can’t simply tell it to go away. I need to do it until I feel that I don’t need to. And in my case, I’m pretty certain that I will keep listening to and making music beyond that, anyway. People who get to know me outside of my music often tell me that they didn’t expect me to make this type of music. That sense of unexpectedness feels nice to me.

Tammy, I bet Dylan’s an amazing kid, who’s doing just fine. I look forward to reading about how he goes though his phases and grows assured of who he is.

ari

Stacey / CreateaBalance’s last blog post..Bingo! Embracing Money

Really, these words meant a great deal to me. I discarded nothing that you wrote. It all applied to my son and I. He is my “sensitive son.”

Tammy Warren’s last blog post..Adventure through time

Welcome to OBV! Thanks for counting me among your “wonderful bloggers” you met.

I have two children, too, younger than yours, I think, at 4 and 1. A girl and a boy. They are indeed worlds apart in terms of personalities. You’ll notice that I mention my kids a lot around here — they are my greatest teachers. It’s like looking at a prototype of human beings — before it gets bent out of shape. It shows me, more clearly than anything, how we are originally made.

As for being sensitive, it can be a challenge, can’t it? It appears that a signal that has an impact of 1 to most people, for us it feels like 5. Other people have a hard time understanding this, as they cannot comprehend why what feels like a minor stimulus to them feels like an electric shock to us. I feel like I have to protect myself and my family (my wife is sensitive, too) from much of the world, as they appear to us as if they’re carelessly swinging about their turbulent emotions, violent visions, and stressful dramas. My daughter knows to protect herself — when a movie she’s watching gets stressful (what appears to be a mild crisis — like being separated from a parent — which is vividly terrifying to her), she asks to turn it off.

But the flip side is that where other people learn one thing, we learn five. Give us carefully filtered signals, and we’ll surprise you with how much we get out of tiny bits of exposures. Gentle touches are all we need — we don’t need shock treatments, “toughening up,” or kicks in the butt. We can steer ourselves just fine, once we know that we are secure.

Wow, sorry, I got carried away — but it was fun for me to describe what it feels like to be me, at least. I could delete what I just wrote, but I’m going to let them go, trusting that you’ll get out what you can use and discard the rest. I have no idea how much of this applies to your son and obviously I’m not about to tell you how to raise him.

Anyway, thanks for visiting and I look forward to getting to know you!

ari

Welcome to OBV! Thanks for the visit. Stop by any time, hang out — I look forward to getting to know you.

ari

>If everyone could find their purpose in life, the world would be happier, and better managed overall.

I couldn’t agree more. I don’t know about everyone else, but to me, one of my mental blocks were that my own pursuit was “selfish” thing to do — I still struggle with some deep-set versions of that belief. But really, finding and pursuing a purpose in life is the greatest service one can make to the world. Now that I know what it’s like to live such a life, I realize what a great injustice that most of us are not doing this.

First, I need to make sure I’m living what I believe. Then I’ll be able to help others do the same.

ari