The intrinsic self is not a genetically programmed entity that simply unfolds with time. […] It is instead a set of potentials, interests, capabilities that interact with the world, each affecting the other.*
(Edward Deci)

When you grow up and have children of your own do please remember something important: a stodgy parent is no fun at all. What a child wants and desires is a parent who is SPARKY.**
(Roald Dahl)

Yesterday, Christine and I became grandparents with the birth of our grandson Archie. So I particularly noticed the opening two quotes from past journaling this morning.

The first reminds me that we are not a zip file to be opened, we are Human Becomings capable of growing through our interactions with our environments and changing those environments through our preferred superpowers.

The second is Roald Dahl’s wonderful way of saying it (I waited until I was 58 years old before reading Danny the Champion of the World – you don’t have to): live a SPARKY life. I’m trying to be a sparkier parent; now I get the chance to be a sparky grandparent.

I offer a simple blessing for Archie:

May you discover the millions
Of years of memories within you,
Making your new life possible,
Filling you with awe and wonder.

And may you be awake to
Your curiosity, becoming an explorer,
Your passion, becoming a lover,
Your goodness, becoming one who gives.

(*From Edward Deci’s Why We Do What We Do.)
(**From Roald Dahl’s Danny the Champion of the World.)