Running through rain, and the Dalai Lama

So this week was actually pretty long. My kids really struggled this week, probably due to the long weekend. I was flipped off by a 4 year old! I didn't even know what that meant at 4, but she deliberately did! I was so shocked I didn't even know what to do! We also went on a field trip this week. Field trips should be fun, this one was extremely stressful. We went to the Dept of Education. They invited a couple schools to read to them, and play games with them. Honestly it seemed more of a publicity stunt. They had Kareem Abdul Jabar there read a book, Miss America as well as the U.S. Secretary of Education and another cabinet member. It was cool as adults to see them, but it went right over the kids' heads. The kids were going crazy and didn't want to sit and listen, when there was a huge room to run in. The games were really hard for the kids to do as well. This made it really stressful and hard to keep track of our kids. Other than that it was okay. They all left with snacks and a free book!
I was definitely done by Thursday though. I was exhausted! Kiera and I decided to go to Target to get some groceries. It is a mile and a half walk to Target, so it is a good workout and a nice walk. We then just hung our that night, and went to bed early.
Friday we got to sleep in. I went to the gym and read. After lunch Kiera and I decided to go to Arlington National Cemetery. We were there for Memorial day but hadn't gone back so we decided to do it again. It is HUGE! We went to Robert E. Lee's home, walked around a little, and then went to the Iwo Jima Memorial. We were kinda tired still. And it started raining. At one point on the way back from the Iwo Jima Memorial, we would stop under trees while it poured and then when it stopped we would run to the next. At one point we were sprinting past these Army men who had umbrellas to get to the metro. It was fun to run in the rain. The Iwo Jima memorial was worth seeing, it is huge and a powerful image. The Arlington House is boring though.
We then went back and went to the store to get some stuff for a Harry Potter party! On our way to the store an old little Asian lady came up and asked if I could help escort her across the road. Of course I would help. She then proceeded to tell me how crazy cars are here, and I was starting to sense a little crazy in her. She was looking for the Foreign Currency Exchange. We told her that it was in the mall and that we could take her there. She was very concerned about the address, and didn't believe that she was in the right place. I started to get a little concerned. I thought some small talk would be good so I asked her where she was from. "Asia". Ok well I got that much. She couldn't speak English super well, but well enough, and looked Asian. So I asked her where in Asia, since it is a very large area. She then whispered, " Can you keep a secret?" I just decided not to go there. Haha, we eventually found what she was looking for and continued on. It was pretty funny.
Then we had our Harry Potter party. Nick came over to join us. We attempted to make butter beer but it didn't work. So instead we had Licorice wands, jelly beans, "chocolate snitches" (oreo truffles) and "chocolate frogs" (Hershey kisses with cards Kiera made). It was really fun!












Saturday was an early morning. We got up early to go see the Dalai Lama speak on the Capitol lawn. He was here doing a World Peace Talk. Whoopi Goldberg was also there to ask him questions. It was very interesting. It was a very "hippyish" event. I was happy that I sorta fit in with my Chaco sandals but I wished I had been wearing my tie dye shirt. It was very hot outside, and I had a hard time understanding him which made it hard to focus. I was able to hear a few things that I liked though. The first was that he said that "Everyone is born with the right to be happy." I like that a lot. Because being happy is a choice, and sometimes it is harder to be happier than other times, but you can always be happy if you choose to be. It is our right as human beings. The other thing that he said is that in order to have world peace we all need to have inner peace. He said that if you have inner peace than you will be able to pass it on, and it will ripple out. "Real beauty is inner beauty". He spoke very informally which came across as choppy, but other than that it was very nice.












We then went to the Holocaust Museum. I had heard it was emotionally and spiritually exhausting and was very worried I wouldn't be able to handle it. They have you take an ID card when you get on the elevator. They then take you up to the top floor and you work your way down. You start by getting off looking at a picture an American soldier took of the horrors they encountered. It was a horrifying picture, none that I hadn't seen already from the Holocaust, but I figured it was going to hard, if that's how it started. It however wasn't anything I hadn't seen already in school. I purposefully did not watch any of the videos that said "viewer discretion advised" though. I could get the same message out of reading about it. I didn't need an image engrained in my mind too. It took us 4 hours to go through the whole thing. It was full of information and was very interesting. I came out of it in awe at how human beings could allow it to have happened. I just can't understand how so many soldiers willingly shot an innocent child, or mother, or father. It was horrifying to think about. The sad thing though is that it still went on. There is still genocide in Africa and Bosnia. Americans even years after this, still didn't understand and treated Black's horribly. How have we all not learned? I even see it in my class. Other children finding reason to put other children below them. For whatever reason. It is horrible. I wish people could see that every time we discriminate against another person, for whatever reason, even though we are not killing them, discrimination is where it all starts.
On that happy note, there are things we can do. We can start with inner peace and love for our God, ourselves, and our neighbors. If we can see everyone as God sees them, then we will have a happy, peaceful world.