Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Compliment circle

Jordan asked that we do a compliment circle because he had something he wanted to give a compliment for. This seems to be something he does at school. He explained that you don't compliment someone's clothes or something like that, you compliment something that they did. And no, we could not do it at the breakfast table, because that was not special enough. Also it was not a circle.

So after breakfast the four of us arranged ourselves in a circle in the living room. Jordan recommended that we sit in lotus position, which for him is criss-cross-applesauce but with your spine straight and your palms on your knees. He found a ball, which you hold when it is your turn, and then you give it to the person you gave a compliment to, and then it's their turn. If you don't have any compliments, you say "Pass." Jordan's first compliment was inspired by the fact that Dale, today, is taking the car to the mechanic, picking it up at the end of the day, picking up the kids, feeding them dinner, and managing them solo while the band is practicing at our house, so that I can teach an evening class.

Dale: I have an important one. Jordan, I couldn't remember where I put your patch, and you remembered that I had put it in my shirt pocket, and I looked where you said and I found it. You were attentive and helpful. Thank you.
Jordan: You're welcome. And my compliment is, thank you Daddy for doing all the work today.
Dale: And thank you Mommy for doing most of that every other day.
Rachel: Mine is, Thank you Daddy for taking the time to understand what I meant earlier today when we were having a tough conversation.
Aaron (taking a turn): Thank you Jordan for playing fun games with me.
Jordan: Thank you Aaron for being fun to play with.

I have to say, we all felt great! Thank you Jordan for teaching us how to do a compliment circle.

1 comment:

Hunter said...

Eleanor and I played this (coincidentally) the other night, and it worked well! The objective was to get the good feelings of getting complimented (in order to override some other garbage). It's funny how when doing it I realized how foreign it felt. Yikes. What happened?!