Siri Allison is a storyteller with Story Circle at Proctors, the resident storytelling company at this performing arts center in Schenectady, NY. This story is from the Kanglanek people, who live near the source of the Colville River, a major river on the Arctic Coast of Alaska. (Story begins at 1:20 after some introduction.)

Setting intentions is a way of practicing mindfulness by focusing on the kind of day, week, year or life you’d like to have, and visualizing the actions you can take to achieve your hopes. It’s a practice that can work for adults, teens and children alike.

If you have time as a family to gather in the morning, take turns sharing your intentions for the day. You could even light a candle or write down your intentions together on a chalkboard or paper, or construct a family ritual of your own. (If time in the morning is stretched thin, you could also take time during the evening or bedtime the night before.)

Children will likely need some help learning this new practice. A good question to begin with is, “What good do you want to invite into your life today?” You can suggest some general feelings that a child might understand and hope to experience: love, peace, joy, fun, safety and success are all good starters.

Brainstorm with children to come up with concrete ways they could experience these feelings during the day, such as “I want to invite success into my life by acing my math test,” or “I want to experience fun by playing with my friends at recess, or “I want to invite peace into my world by talking to kids at school that look lonely.” Yoga Chicago offers some other great suggestions for setting intentions with children that apply well for all ages.

Magalie L’Abbé/ Flickr

Lastly, visualize these things happening: sitting down to take the math test and knowing all the answers, being a good friend to classmates so that you can enjoy fun together at recess, being mindful of which classmates could use a friendly ear, and striking up conversation. (Visualizing your hopes for the day is also a great meditative exercise for adults, too!)

For additional ideas for setting intentions for yourself or for your family, visit Playful Planet’s website.

Why, you might ask, would we honor James Lord Pierpont? James, who was born in 1822, grew up a Unitarian, but it was his father John who was the minister. John was also an abolitionist, someone who fought against slavery. But James actually fought on the side of the South during the Civil War.

James married and had children, but he left them behind to start a business as part of the California Gold Rush. His business failed after his goods burned up in a fire. A few years later his wife died, and James left his kids with his father as he followed his brother Rev. John Pierpont, Jr. to Savannah, Georgia, where the younger John Pierpont was called to serve a Unitarian church.
So what about this makes James Pierpont so special? Nothing. It was a lot of failure and sadness. Except that somewhere around the time that he moved to Savannah, James wrote a little song you might have heard. He called it “The One Horse Open Sleigh,” but you might know it as “Jingle Bells.”

Pete Markham/Flickr

When he was going through trouble and loss, James Pierpont could have no idea that he would create something that 150 years later would be part of the joyful holiday season for millions of children and adults. That’s hope for you.

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This piece was originally presented at a #BlackLivesMatter vigil at the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis.

My heart is aching for answers, for a way this makes sense, for a way to understand a 12-year old child shot, a way to understand Eric Garner, a father of six, choked to death in broad daylight with his murderers caught on camera—no medical attention, left to die in the street just like Michael Brown, who also received no medical attention. Read more →