“Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”
My pal Harry is a Facebook engineer who works on the Summit Learning platform, and whenever he’s at the Summit home office we spend a healthy amount of time discussing books, parenting, and his adorable children.
He told me about an awesome parenting book he just finished called “How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk” by Adele Faber. I, childless with no immediate plans to have children, picked up the book because I’m a nerd who loves to read, especially about parenting and child-rearing. One cannot be too informed, right?
What surprised me while reading this book was how applicable these tips were to adults communication. This book could have easily been called “How to Talk So Adults Will Listen & Listen So Adults Will Talk”.
It seems impossible to have a civil political debate – let alone conversation – with someone who doesn’t share your political views. Earlier I was reading the comments on an online news article, and I was so disheartened by what I saw. They were mean-spirited, vicious, and counter-productive. I sat at my desk, confused. Do we, Americans, want to get along or not? Because calling each other a moron is absolutely not the way to bridge the divide.
The biggest take-away I got from the book was to validate each other’s feelings. No child wants to hear they shouldn’t be upset because the ice cream store closed early. Similarly, no “Make America Great Again” hat wearer wants to be told they shouldn’t support Trump. I think once we begin accepting each other’s feelings, instead of stomping them to the ground, we will start to have productive conversations.
Maybe we would discover that we have more in common than it seems.
This smoothie recipe is something I came up with shortly after I bought my Vitamix (a little Christmas gift to myself). It was part of an initiative to force as much fruits and vegetables into me on a daily basis. These smoothies are so delicious and incredibly easy to make. Similar to waffles, these smoothies could be breakfast or dessert – or both.
So let’s all put nutritious food into our bodies and healthy discourse into the web!
- 1 cup pure pineapple juice
- 1 cup water
- 2 curly kale leaves
- 1 sweet red apple, skin and core removed
- 1 small banana or half of a large banana
- 3 - 4 ice cubes
- Place all ingredients in the blender in the order that it's listed.
- Blend at a low speed for 10 seconds, then gradually increase the speed to medium-high until smooth. Serve immediately.
Beautiful writing! And as always the pictures and recipe look delicious. Can’t wait to try this when I’m at home where I can use my mom’s heavy duty blender to blend things like kale and apples!
Smoothie looks great and refreshing in color also. Instead of using canned pineapple juice I had used fresh pineapple juice while making it for my kid. He loved it.