Morning Prayers Recited:
• Om Saha naavatu (My Prayers, page 6)
• Karagre Vaasate (My Prayers, page 43)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (My Prayers, page 44)
• Guru Brahma (My Prayers, page 9, third shloka)
Vedic Chanting:
• Praarthanaa with Panditji. (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 3)
• Medha Sukhtam with Panditji. (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 35)
Bhajans: None
Storytime with Swamiji: Video on Prahlada and Lord Vishnu with Swamiji.
Art Projects: Both groups continued working on their Toran projects. Many of them were able to decorate with sequins, beads, etc. You can view their work in today's Photo Gallery.
Shaanti Circle Discussion: Today was the day that nearly everyone got the "Time and Pebble" Game right!! Our minds were forcused and silent for 3 minutes before the first pebble dropped. Tomorrow we are going to try 4 minutes -- we think we are ready for the challenge!
We spent a little time reviewing some of yesterday's disucssion on the Chinmaya Pledge. Afterwards, some of our campers shared their ideas on what they thought "living honestly" meant. When asked, none of us could honestly say that we were "living honestly" all the time! It was a bit hard to admit ... but we did it :-) Reviewing the pledge led us into some questions about how we can deal with day-to-day issues ... like "how to not hurt someone's feelings when they are sharing something with you that you don't agree with?" ... "how can you respect someone that you don't agree with?" ... "how are we like one family, courageous and disciplined?" Unfortunately, we only had a half hour for discussion -- with lots of comments and ideas to share! We will pick things up again tomorrow afternoon to continue our conversation on the Pledge.
End of Class Prayers: Poornamadah, Chinmaya Pledge
Photo Gallery: July 14 (click here to view)
Comments: Our chanting sounded much better this morning -- there was much more clarity and confidence in the childeren's chanting! We got the smile and nod of approval from Panditji after chanting the Medha Sukhtam. Boy, did that make us happy! Panditji did suggest, however, that we needed to pay close attention to some of our intonations. We must not forget to practice daily -- every morning.
This afternoon, in addition to some other topics, we decided to spend some focused time discussing the etiquette of the Lego Table. All of us agreed that the Legos needed a full day of rest. The Aunties have put bricks, wheels and motors away so that some of the children can begin to explore some of the other daily camp activities. We will bring everything back to the table on Thursday. Not to worry, kids ...
Everyone is doing so beautifully with their torans! At the rate everyone is working, we will probably have everything completed by tomorrow afternoon. Definitely take a look on the Photo Gallery to check out the childrens' work. Though everybody had exactly the same materials to work with, each toran is turning out very unique!
Sheila Auntie will join us tomorrow afternoon for bhajans. We look forward to singing with her again.
We have 50 more caterpillars on the way! (Hopefully, they will get here by early next week.) We still see an occasional butterfly friend in the ashram gardens ...
