6 hours agoHazelene Bhavsar- March 28th Session
During this session we discussed the story,”Arnie the Darling Starling”. I must admit that, when we decided to pick this book, I had my doubts as to how are we going to discuss a fictional book and what am I possibly going to say about a make believe story!!But surprisingly it was one of my favorite
session .It took us down to the memory lane.
Nilakshi gave us a summary of the book. This is a story of a talking starling and the grandmother who raised him is as heartwarming a book as you will ever read .When Margarete first came upon Arnie, he was just a familiar springtime sight: a baby bird lying helpless in the daisy patch. After unsuccessfully trying to return him to the nest, she took him into her Texas home and raised him as carefully as she had raised her own child, teaching him to perch, to fly, even to talk. Arnie resisted all attempts to restore him to the wild, preferring steak and canned corn to worms, which frightened him, and even developing a taste for wine.
Most astonishing of all, he learned to talk and sing, and he had a remarkable influence on a number of lives. Lenny, the young drug addict, paused on the road to self-destruction, so enthralled by Arnie that he carried a dog-eared picture of him in his wallet. Suzanne, the Vietnamese refugee, learned from Arnie that wrong home can be a prison and fled to Colorado to start a new life. Margarete's grandson, Travis, who called Arnie "Super bird," gained a new respect for wild creatures, and even her three cats came to love Arnie as one of their own.
Arnie is full of life, laughter, and love. It is a completely irresistible book.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/379344.Arnie_the_Darling_Starling
This book brought back her (Nilakshi’s) childhood memories when she and a friend took care of a puppy. It also reminded her of the good old days when there was lesser TV watching and more playing outside.
Arnie the bird mentioned in the story reminded Gayathri of her own experience of having a sparrow’s nest in her loft and also how once the baby bird, if once fallen from the nest or touched by human, will not be accepted back. She wondered if that was the same reason why Arnie was repeatedly rejected by his mother. She shared about her pet dog Rakhi, whom she fondly remembers till date.
To me,Arnie’s story took me few decades back to TV-less and safer times, when we all played with friends all day and mothers never worried about too much screen time or weird strangers. It reminded me about how rich and eventful our childhood was without shelling out a dime from our parent’s pockets.
Arnie also reminded me of my pet Snoopy……..and how he could read my emotions!!!I also feel children learn a lot from caring for animals. They learn unconditional love, loyalty, responsibility etc.
Varsha shared her wonderful childhood experience of having a dog and a stray cat……and how the cat like Arnie was persistent on being cared for, by her family……..how her mother couldn’t resist feeding the cat........and how the cat wouldn’t eat the prey that she (the cat) had just hunted, without the permission of Varsha or Varsha’s other family members. The cat’s appearance and disappearance (almost exactly 1 yr. after Varsha’s mother’s demise) still remains a mystery to her. She also shared about the days when she used to work for a non-profit organization which took in animals and took care of them. She also had a mini clinic in her own living room. She still loves and misses spending time with animals.
The story reminded Seema of her days back in time. She expressed her wishes for her son to have the same kind of values. She finds it unnecessary for children to have the access to TV, Iphone, and WII etc. She herself does not use a cell phone. We all applaud you for that!!!She also doesn’t find the need to buy too many toys for the kids which somehow is becoming the latest trend in many families. She also shared with the group, her recent experience on how her son was persistent about getting snow boots because all his classmates had it……..how the kids do face peer pressure and sometimes worry about it.Explaining the concept of NEED and WANT is a challenge we all parents face.
Thank you all for sharing their personal experiences. All in all a reminiscing discussion!!!Looking forward Ato many more!!See you next Wed 4TH April. Each of us will get our own topic (7mins long) and share with the group. Same format as mentioned before. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!See you all next week. 
www.goodreads.comThis true story of a talking starling and the grandmother who raised him is as heartwarming a book as you will ever read - a new classic in the tradition of Rascal, Born Free, and That Quail, Robert. When Margarete first came upon Ar...
Thursday, March 29, 2012
March28th 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
March 22nd Session
- March 22nd session
We had a very lively discussion about the book ANATOMY OF THE SPIRIT!!!
First of all we welcome our new member Varsha to The Broadmoor Book club. Our session was filled with lots of opinions and different point of view of the book. Like the author spoke about looking at the building on fire from different corners or angles, each one of us also had different interpretations of what we read.
I was fascinated with Rachael, the 80 year old women in Alaska. I would definitely love to meet someone like her in my lifetime!!!Some points which stayed with me were:-
• Intuition or symbolic sight is not a gift but a skill.
• Our biography becomes our biology
• Experiences carry emotional energy
• Personal power is necessary for health
• You alone can help yourself to heal
• Look for happiness inside yourself,
• external factors of happiness are short lived
I also liked the comparison of the 7 chakras with the 7 sacraments.
Seema liked the thought of the author teaching self-healing but pondered if it’s possible after reading the book. She also liked the simple truths which were:-
• All circumstances can be changed in a moment.
• Be constant: live what you believe
• Change is constant. Go with the flow.
• Never look at another person to make you happy. It is an internal, personal attitude and responsibility.
• Life is essentially a learning experience.
• Positive energy works more effectively than negative.
• Live in the present moment and practice forgiveness
Sneha liked many little details like not leaving any unfinished business, about the blanket on the wall and about the Athabascan spiritual traditions.
Varsha and Sneha shared their similar interests in the movie Apocalypto.
The movie is about the Mayan kingdom that faces its decline, the rulers insist the key to prosperity is to build more temples and offer human sacrifices. Jaguar Paw, a young man captured for sacrifice, flees to avoid his fate.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472043/
They also spoke about the book “The Alchemist”.
The Alchemist is a novel by Paulo Coelho first published in 1988. Originally written in Portuguese, it has been translated into 67 languages as of 2009. An allegorical novel, The Alchemist follows a young Andalusian shepherd named Santiago in his journey to Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there. This book is about intuitions. Good intuitions and bad intuitions.
It was surprising that both of them felt that each time you read the book you find discover new dimensions to it.
Gayathri shared her simplified idea of her principle of living.
• Lead a truthful life
• Share a smile
• If you make a mistake it is going to be worrying you the most. Make it right immediately, instead of letting it pile on your consciousness
• Don’t wait…..ask for forgiveness ,forgive others
Nilakshi shared the reading genres:-
Fictions
• Fantasy
• Mystery
• Realistic fiction
• Historical fiction
• Traditional literature
• Science Fiction
• Classics
Non-Fiction
• Informational
• Self help
• Biography
• Auto Biography
Poetry
There were disagreements, agreements……there was laughing …..Lots of laughing!!! But this difference of opinions made the session more interesting!!!
See all of you next week Wednesday 03/21/2012, 6:30 pm@party hall.
We each of us can share anything with the group.(book,article,poem,etc)
March 14th session
We had a very lively discussion about the book ANATOMY OF THE SPIRIT!!!
First of all we welcome our new member Varsha to The Broadmoor Book club. Our session was filled with lots of opinions and different point of view of the book. Like the author spoke about looking at the building on fire from different corners or angles, each one of us also had different interpretations of what we read.
I was fascinated with Rachael, the 80 year old women in Alaska. I would definitely love to meet someone like her in my lifetime!!!Some points which stayed with me were:-
• Intuition or symbolic sight is not a gift but a skill.
• Our biography becomes our biology
• Experiences carry emotional energy
• Personal power is necessary for health
• You alone can help yourself to heal
• Look for happiness inside yourself,
• external factors of happiness are short lived
I also liked the comparison of the 7 chakras with the 7 sacraments.
Seema liked the thought of the author teaching self-healing but pondered if it’s possible after reading the book. She also liked the simple truths which were:-
• All circumstances can be changed in a moment.
• Be constant: live what you believe
• Change is constant. Go with the flow.
• Never look at another person to make you happy. It is an internal, personal attitude and responsibility.
• Life is essentially a learning experience.
• Positive energy works more effectively than negative.
• Live in the present moment and practice forgiveness
Sneha liked many little details like not leaving any unfinished business, about the blanket on the wall and about the Athabascan spiritual traditions.
Varsha and Sneha shared their similar interests in the movie Apocalypto.
The movie is about the Mayan kingdom that faces its decline, the rulers insist the key to prosperity is to build more temples and offer human sacrifices. Jaguar Paw, a young man captured for sacrifice, flees to avoid his fate.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472043/
They also spoke about the book “The Alchemist”.
The Alchemist is a novel by Paulo Coelho first published in 1988. Originally written in Portuguese, it has been translated into 67 languages as of 2009. An allegorical novel, The Alchemist follows a young Andalusian shepherd named Santiago in his journey to Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there. This book is about intuitions. Good intuitions and bad intuitions.
It was surprising that both of them felt that each time you read the book you find discover new dimensions to it.
Gayathri shared her simplified idea of her principle of living.
• Lead a truthful life
• Share a smile
• If you make a mistake it is going to be worrying you the most. Make it right immediately, instead of letting it pile on your consciousness
• Don’t wait…..ask for forgiveness ,forgive others
Nilakshi shared the reading genres:-
Fictions
• Fantasy
• Mystery
• Realistic fiction
• Historical fiction
• Traditional literature
• Science Fiction
• Classics
Non-Fiction
• Informational
• Self help
• Biography
• Auto Biography
Poetry
There were disagreements, agreements……there was laughing …..Lots of laughing!!! But this difference of opinions made the session more interesting!!!
See all of you next week Wednesday 03/21/2012, 6:30 pm@party hall.
We each of us can share anything with the group.(book,article,poem,etc) 
www.imdb.comDirected by Mel Gibson. With Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Trujillo, Dalia Hernández, Rudy Youngblood. As the Mayan kingdom faces its decline, the rulers insist the key to prosperity is to build more temples and offer human sacrifices. Jaguar Paw, a young man captured for sacrifice, flees to avoid his fat...
March 18Nilakshi Pradhan- Hey guys been forgetting when we meet, whoever has the when I die ... Book pls can u get it for the coming session thx
- TuesdayHazelene Bhavsar
- Hi girls,
We are meeting tomorrow 3/21/12 @6:30 pm in the party hall.Each of us can use their sharetime to share anything they choose with the group.It can be a book,article etc. Gayathri can you pass on this message to Varsha? See you all lovely ladies tomorrow!!!
TuesdayGayathri Jois- Hey!!...lovely ladies??...I liked it Hazelene:)...c u all tomorrow, surely will convey to Varsha,
- 7 hours agoHazelene Bhavsar
- March 21 session
The session predominantly was about parenting. Being a mother, I realized it is one of our favorite and endless topics. Each one of us has our own experiences and can literally write a book on this topic!!
The session started with me reading an article about a conference I had attended 8 years back (which I vaguely remember).So I compiled some information which I felt interesting, from the internet about the ISP ( Art of parenting )(Gosh I hate that name!!!)My husband strongly felt, “nobody on earth needs to learn parenting, it comes naturally!!!” Though I agree with this concept, I still found couple of interesting tools in child rising like:-
• Having a constant dialogue with your child from birth
• Having music in life
• Overall development (intellectual, physical, social, inter –personal, intra-personal, spiritual, emotional etc.)
• Left-brain right-brain study
• Sleep talk
Varsha gave descriptive explanation about The Iceberg Model
She also expressed her concerns about SLEEP TALK being a manipulative technique and about people who organize parenting courses with incomplete knowledge about child psychology. She also covered some subjects about puberty, importance of sex education, when to have the sextalk with your child, self-esteem, core personality etc. which she is going to delve into in the coming weeks. We all are looking forward to it.
Gayathri shared an article in which she spoke about the generation gap. The parenting ideology her mother used in raising her and whether it’s possible to use the same when she is raising her daughter since the times have changed. She also expressed her desire to instill some values in her daughter which has been important to her. She feels the best way to teach a child is to set a good example in front of her. She feel learn from what we do rather than what we say. But having said that, sometimes we parents also contradict what we teach (like we tell our kids to be honest but sometimes we do in front of them).Good food for thought……..how do we deal with the changing needs of our child…..whether we are right in our methods?
Sneha shared some facts she had read from a book of parenting:-
• Don’t introduce NO to your child
• Don’t use force
She felt children like to have the power of choice. She also felt that children can learn from being more social. If not, could make him or her introvert and shy. Children learn a lot from other children and from social situation which could be useful in their lives.
Seema wondered how would she deal with her son wanting to brush his teeth early in the morning and wondered if she should use force and how it’s possible not to use to word NO.
Thanks to everybody for sharing their personal parenting techniques, experiences and views…….it is indeed good relief to know that there are many ways to raise our children…….and that there are many people around the world, with different cultural, religious and educational background raising wonderful kids!!!I also would like to share The Serenity Prayer mentioned by Varsha.
The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
--Reinhold Niebuhr
My apologies for having taken a lot of the share time yesterday………I got the feeling that Seema and Sneha did not get much time to share.
So that we all have equal share time, I have 2 suggestions:-
1) Each one of us brings an article, book etc. And use only 10 mins of uninterrupted share time, keeping the discussions to the end of the session until everybody has done with the share time.
Or
2) Choose a common topic in advance and we all prepare for the topic for 10 mins each.
Looking forward to your suggestions!!We will meet again for this open discussion 4/5/2012 same time same place.
See you all next Wednesday 3/29/12 for the reader’s digest book discussion which is being passed around. Whoever has the book please pass it around so everybody finish on time!!!Happy Reading!!
- 7 hours agoHazelene Bhavsar
wilderdom.comconscious (small): this is the part of the mind that holds what youre aware of. You can verablize about your conscious experience and you can think about it in a logical fashion.
- 4 hours agoHazelene Bhavsar
- March 21 session
The session predominantly was about parenting. Being a mother, I realized it is one of our favorite and is an endless topic. Each one of us has our own experiences and can literally write a book on this topic!!
The session started with me reading an article about a conference I had attended 8 years back (which I vaguely remember).So I compiled some information which I felt was interesting, from the internet about the ISP ( Art of parenting )(Gosh I hate that name!!!)My husband strongly felt, “nobody on earth needs to learn parenting, it comes naturally!!!” Though I agree with this concept also, I still found couple of tools useful in child rising like:-
• Having a constant dialogue with your child from birth
• Having music in life
• Overall development (intellectual, physical, social, inter –personal, intra-personal, spiritual, emotional etc.)
• Left-brain right-brain study
• Sleep talk
Varsha gave descriptive explanation about The Iceberg Model
She also expressed her concerns about SLEEP TALK being a manipulative technique and about people who organize parenting courses with incomplete knowledge about child psychology. She also covered some subjects about puberty, importance of sex education, when to have the sextalk with your child, self-esteem, core personality etc. which she is going to delve into in the coming weeks. We all are looking forward to it.
Gayathri shared an article in which she spoke about the generation gap. The parenting ideology her mother used in raising her and whether it’s possible to use the same method when she is raising her daughter ,since the times have changed. She also expressed her desire to instill some values in her daughter which has been important to her. She feels the best way to teach a child is to set a good example in front of her. She feels children learn from what we do rather than what we say. But having said that, sometimes we parents also contradict what we teach (like we tell our kids to be honest but sometimes we do lie in front of them).Good food for thought……..how do we deal with the changing needs of our child…..whether we are right in our methods?
Sneha shared some facts she had read from a book of parenting:-
• Don’t introduce NO to your child
• Don’t use force
She felt children like to have the power of choice. She also felt that children can learn from being more social. If not, could make him or her introvert and shy. Children learn a lot from other children and from social situation which could be useful in their lives.
Seema wondered how would she deal with her son wanting to brush his teeth early in the morning and wondered if she should use force and how it’s possible not to use to word NO.
Thanks to everybody for sharing their personal parenting techniques, experiences and views…….it is indeed a good relief to know that there are many ways to raise our children…….and that there are many people around the world, with different cultural, religious and educational background raising wonderful kids!!!Also would like to add that every mother has been blessed with gift from God called MATERNAL INSTINCTS.I also would like to share The Serenity Prayer mentioned by Varsha.
The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
--Reinhold Niebuhr
My apologies for having taken a lot of the share time yesterday………I got the feeling that Seema and Sneha did not get much time to share.
So that we all have equal share time, I have 2 suggestions:-
1) Each one of us brings an article, book etc. And use only 10 mins of uninterrupted share time, keeping the discussions to the end of the session until everybody has done with the share time.
Or
2) Choose a common topic in advance and we all prepare for the topic for 10 mins each.
Looking forward to your suggestions!!We will meet again for this open discussion 4/5/2012 same time same place.
See you all next Wednesday 3/29/12 for the reader’s digest book discussion which is being passed around. Whoever has the book please pass it around so everybody finish on time!!!Happy Reading!!
- 4 hours agoGayathri Jois
- Very nice write up Hazelene:)...oh god u hv a awesome memory & style of writing!!...I agree with u, you should be a little strong on time limits...though the talks went well, most of the time went on discussing, so next time the time limit should work:)...hv a grt week!!!
- 4 hours agoGayathri Jois
- discussion, hoping next session, we will stick on to time limits,
Hv a grt week:)...
- 4 hours agoNilakshi Pradhan
- Looks like I missed a good session. Neverthless thanks to Hazel, after such a nice and detailed update, felt like I was there after all
Regarding the time thing, since there are now six of us, we can keep individual presentations (thats how i think of them somehow) to a max of 7 mins each. That will leave time at then end of the hour for some lively group discussion . .... ur thots grls
- 3 hours agoHazelene Bhavsar
- I totally enjoyed yesterday's discussion but I agree we needed stick to 6:30 to 7:30 pm every Wednesday,since past 2 weeks I know some of you are missing their zumba class.So we have to arrange our discussions to be more structured and be more time conscious.I agree with the format of having 7 mins individual,uninterupted presentation of any topic of your choice.So thats it will 42 mins till everybody's turn is done.After that we have 18 mins left for group discussion.If somebody is not prepared with a topic then their time can be added to the group discussion at the end.But we have to prepare smaller and brief presentation that fit into the 7-min time slot.So we really have to make sure it is short and sweet.Also make sure everybody follows these guidelines and read the messages so we know what is decided.Gayathri I don't have Varsha's cell no. or facebook id......so if you can find out the best medium to reach her please let me know.And also we will make sure we update all this in our Broadmoor Blog which Seema has prepared for us.And everbody in our group follows it.
- 3 hours agoHazelene Bhavsar
- Yesterday I did have a vast topic which took up lot of time.Sorry my bad!!!I will make sure I stick to the time limit.
Friday, March 16, 2012
March14th Discussion
- March 14th session
We had a very lively discussion about the book ANATOMY OF THE SPIRIT!!!
First of all we welcome our new member Varsha to The Broadmoor Book club. Our session was filled with lots of opinions and different point of view of the book. Like the author spoke about looking at the building on fire from different corners or angles, each one of us also had different interpretations of what we read.
I was fascinated with Rachael, the 80 year old women in Alaska. I would definitely love to meet someone like her in my lifetime!!!Some points which stayed with me were:-
• Intuition or symbolic sight is not a gift but a skill.
• Our biography becomes our biology
• Experiences carry emotional energy
• Personal power is necessary for health
• You alone can help yourself to heal
• Look for happiness inside yourself,
• external factors of happiness are short lived
I also liked the comparison of the 7 chakras with the 7 sacraments.
Seema liked the thought of the author teaching self-healing but pondered if it’s possible after reading the book. She also liked the simple truths which were:-
• All circumstances can be changed in a moment.
• Be constant: live what you believe
• Change is constant. Go with the flow.
• Never look at another person to make you happy. It is an internal, personal attitude and responsibility.
• Life is essentially a learning experience.
• Positive energy works more effectively than negative.
• Live in the present moment and practice forgiveness
Sneha liked many little details like not leaving any unfinished business, about the blanket on the wall and about the Athabascan spiritual traditions.
Varsha and Sneha shared their similar interests in the movie Apocalypto.
The movie is about the Mayan kingdom that faces its decline, the rulers insist the key to prosperity is to build more temples and offer human sacrifices. Jaguar Paw, a young man captured for sacrifice, flees to avoid his fate.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472043/
They also spoke about the book “The Alchemist”.
The Alchemist is a novel by Paulo Coelho first published in 1988. Originally written in Portuguese, it has been translated into 67 languages as of 2009. An allegorical novel, The Alchemist follows a young Andalusian shepherd named Santiago in his journey to Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there. This book is about intuitions. Good intuitions and bad intuitions.
It was surprising that both of them felt that each time you read the book you find discover new dimensions to it.
Gayathri shared her simplified idea of her principle of living.
• Lead a truthful life
• Share a smile
• If you make a mistake it is going to be worrying you the most. Make it right immediately, instead of letting it pile on your consciousness
• Don’t wait…..ask for forgiveness ,forgive others
Nilakshi shared the reading genres:-
Fictions
• Fantasy
• Mystery
• Realistic fiction
• Historical fiction
• Traditional literature
• Science Fiction
• Classics
Non-Fiction
• Informational
• Self help
• Biography
• Auto Biography
Poetry
There were disagreements, agreements……there was laughing …..Lots of laughing!!! But this difference of opinions made the session more interesting!!!
See all of you next week Wednesday 03/21/2012, 6:30 pm@party hall.
We each of us can share anything with the group.(book,article,poem,etc) - www.imdb.comDirected by Mel Gibson. With Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Trujillo, Dalia Hernández, Rudy Youngblood. As the Mayan kingdom faces its decline, the rulers insist the key to prosperity is to build more temples and offer human sacrifices. Jaguar Paw, a young man captured for sacrifice, flees to avoid his fat...
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