This post is the fourth in a series of eight concerning Deepak Chopra’s Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents. For the original post and summary, click here.

Tuesday is the day of Karma. The message for today is, “When you make a choice, you change the future.”

This, today, this is the day I’m struggling with. I believe in karma, and I understand it, mostly (well… as much as any regular person can). Not in the way that people flippantly refer to it, as if it’s instant and applies to things like spilling your milkshake after making fun of a friend, but in a much more holistic, long-term sense. But how on earth do you explain that to a child? I picture myself explaining it to Neko, and then her thinking that she’ll be rich if she’s nice to people, or assuming someone got sick because they weren’t a nice person. Throw reincarnation and karma over several lives in there and I’m stumped! I need it to be simple enough to explain to her, but not have her oversimplify it in selfish or harmful ways. Perhaps this will just come with time.

For now, we will focus on identifying how the choices we make change the future, and that when we do things that help bring happiness and success to others, that we ourselves are more likely to be happy and successful. We will use today as an opportunity to discuss how to know what is the right choice – listening to our intuition, and asking ourselves how our choice will affect ourselves and others, before deciding.

In the end, we didn’t talk very much about choices today. I’ll write this off as a day to prepare for future Tuesdays, and next week I’ll be sure to have a good conversation about it with Neko!

a) read books about karma – any suggestions? I thought of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as an example of book where people “get what they deserve” – that’s the best I’ve come up with. ETA: My friend Jen suggested the Grimm’s fairy tale Mother Holle. This got me thinking – many fairy tales have a rather karmic theme to them. Cinderella, for instance. I think Tuesday would be a good day for fairy tales and fables.

b) talk about good things that have happened to us

c) talk about our beliefs about karma

d) talk about situations that happened today and choices we made, and why we made the choices we did – Talk about how we feel about that choice. You could also write a story or make a book about these choices.

e) talk about listening to our intuition to help us make choices

f) Pick a situation in your life – what can you learn from it? Sometimes things happen to us because we can learn from them.

Book ideas: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Movie ideas: The Cat Returns, A Little Princess