Spirituality & Practice

By Julia Li for KidSpirit's Storytelling and Narrative Issue.

Author's Note: In the original Chang’E legend, Chang’E and her husband Houyi are immortals living in heaven. When the Jade Emperor’s ten sons turn into suns and start wreaking havoc, Houyi is called upon to fix the problem and does so by shooting down 9 of the 10 suns. The Jade Emperor consequently banishes Houyi and Chang'E to earth. Houyi ventures on a quest to get the pill of immortality. When he comes back home, he hides the pill in a box and tells Chang'E not to open the box. When Houyi catches Chang'E peeping into the box, she swallows the entire pill in terror. Because only half the pill is needed to become immortal, Chang’E ends up floating beyond heaven and landing on the moon, where she stays for eternity with the Jade Rabbit.

Chang’E’s new life starts with a push.

Technically, it started when the Jade Emperor struck his gold gavel on the table with the strength of a lion to seal her banishment . . .

By Maya Mesh for KidSpirit's Heritage issue.

Some people say that being Hispanic can mean a lot of things. It can mean that you are an honor student, a writer, a CEO, even a Supreme Court justice. But it can also mean that you are oppressed, poor, an alien, an outsider.

Being white can mean a lot of things, too. It can mean that you are a school principal, the President of the United States, House Majority Leader. It can also mean that you are racist, entitled, privileged. At least, that’s what I hear.

I am white, but I am also Hispanic. . . .

By Lila Hazan KidSpirit's Human Dignity issue.

The concept of human dignity has never been in the forefront of my mind.

I have been raised in a primarily atheist family within a primarily atheist culture, so this idea of inherent human worth does not connect back to religion for me as I believe it does for many others. However, despite my lack of theistic belief, much of my moral code originates in the beliefs established by religious practices. I believe that there are universal laws that we must abide by. I used to think of the idea that everyone possesses inherent dignity — that everyone is born with a universal sense of good and bad — as one of those laws: simple and concrete. But recently I have realized that everyone has their own idea or perception of morality, and so there is no real inherent human dignity.

I remember when I used to think that the world was clearly divided . . .

By Olivia Bailey, for KidSpirit's The Speed of Now Issue

Media: today’s version of a synthetic reality that people are readily willing to accept as truth.

Face-to-face conversations are few and far between, and people’s chosen forms of communication often allow for them to pick out any mistakes — letting them hide their flaws before anyone has a chance to see inside. There’s only one problem with this. We’re engulfing ourselves in these fake feelings, almost to the point that we forget we belong to a real, tangible world. We turn into our labels and give in to made-up happinesses — to the point where we can look in a mirror and not recognize ourselves as proper human beings. Technology, this wonderful tool we’ve invented to better our day-to-day lives, has managed to replace reality. And most of us don’t even realize it.

The first time I truly realized how much technology twists our self-image was during a trip to Texas . . .

By Ayla Schultz, for KidSpirit's Speed of Now issue.

I settle down for dinner with my family. Pots of steaming and fragrant dahl, rotis, chicken, and pale brown rice sit at the center of the table.

Nani is sitting across from me, talking to my brother about something that my uncle recently sent on WhatsApp. The smell of zeera, elaichi, and rai seeds hit my nose. Mouths water, plates are overfilled, everyone smiles as the warm food hits their mouths.

Food has always been central to the culture of my family. . . .

By Zainab Umarfor KidSpirit's Storytelling and Narrative issue.

Almost as if it were part of the story itself, I can recall the day my mother told us the tale of Hazrat Musa like it happened just yesterday, instead of a decade ago.

It was a typical Lahori summer night, soundless except for the droning symphony of mosquitoes. My little brother and I tossed around restlessly in our beds, fanning our flushed faces. A power line near our home had been damaged, plunging our street into darkness, and the wind from the rechargeable fan our father had positioned near our bed made a feeble attempt at cutting through the thick-as-custard air. Hearing our muttered complaints and huffs of exasperation, our mother entered the room. She knew it was impossible for us to sleep in this heat, so she told us to be patient, and began telling us a story which transported us from the humid streets of Lahore to the searing dunes of ancient Egypt, where a child called Musa (Moses) was born.

At the time of Musa’s birth, Egypt was ruled by a terrible and tyrannical Pharaoh . . .

By Aditya Naik for KidSpirit's Creation and Destruction issue.

Can something be both creative and destructive?

You may never have thought about that question. Your spontaneous answer might be “of course not.” But I believe that anything can be both creative and destructive depending on the situation and how we look at it.

I am an Indian, and so I am blessed to have been born in a country of rich tradition and culture.

By Zach Young for KidSpirit's Ethics and Morality issue.

What are morals and where do they come from?

Is morality like the laws of physics, ironclad dicta from nature? Or is morality like language, where there is no “right answer” but different languages that different groups of people speak?

These are eternal questions with many answers. . . .

By Jack Miles for KidSpirit's Adventurous Spirit issue.

When I was called up to the center altar of my church by the members of “Drums No Guns,” I froze.

Who was I kidding? I often fidget by drumming pencils on desks or chopsticks on tables, but drumming in front of a few hundred people during a Palm Sunday service that’s webcast to potentially hundreds of others seemed more like a nightmare than reality. I had beat the drum during the procession, and maybe improvised a little, but in no way was I qualified to join the group. I tried to casually play it off and back away, but when I turned around to be absorbed by the crowd, I faced a wall of white robes, colored stoles, and beaming faces.

The priests were not going to let me back out of this one. . . .

By Vanita Sharma for KidSpirit's Resilience issue.

Landing on my high school’s junior varsity tennis team for the third time in a row was devastating.

After spending hours, even years, vying for a position on varsity while watching my sister rise up through the ranks and observing my peers compete in the official leagues, I was desperate to make the team. I am not usually superstitious, but I used to blow a wish on every eyelash that I found to help me get onto the team.

After getting rejected I wanted to quit. I stopped believing that I was good enough for any team . . .