Mindful Parenting is a contemplative practice through which we become more mindful of our children and, in doing so, experience a more joyful life.
The Mindful Parent is an organization
devoted to sharing with parents and other child caregivers ways in
which to enhance the many joys of parenting. By mindfully attending
to our children, both when we are physically present with them and
when we are physically separated from them, we can enhance our sense
of connection to them and, in turn, our connection to the cosmos.
This makes us a better parent, a happier person, and a more vital
human being.
To facilitate a more mindful approach to parenting,
The Mindful Parent publishes on its website, and in its bi-weekly
newsletter,
mindful parenting
verses and commentaries. The Mindful
Parent website also serves as a community forum that encourages and
supports a mindful parenting dialogue and the sharing of mindful parenting
experiences.
In the spirit of developing a mindful parenting
community, we encourage you to
submit a mindful parenting
experience through verse, commentary, and imagery to share with others.
We believe that through our collective experience, we can help
each other develop a deeper and more meaningful mindful
parenting practice.
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The Daily Sip:
Steam
And Your Child's Loving Heart
Yesterday's Morning Cup looked
to the colder weather and the drinking of hot beverages and offered
the following mindful parenting verse based on the warm feel
of the cup of tea of coffee:
This drink
Warm to my touch
Reminds
me of my child's warm embrace
Today's verse looks to the
steam rising from the cup as an opportunity to connect more deeply
with your child and with the world around you.
This
ephemeral steam
Arises out of the warmth and coldness
Of my child's heart and a world
Still evolving
Your precious child is filled with warmth and love. This
was never more apparent than when he or she was born and it continues
to emerge from within the depth of your child's spirit, character,
and heart. So it is with our fellow human beings.
At the
same time, the world around us can feel very cold. And perceptions
of this coldness can overwhelm and compromise our child's
expressions of warmth and love. So too, it affects these expressions
from our fellow human beings and ourselves.
Today's verse looks
to the steam rising from the cup as a cue to the coming together of
inner warmth and external coldness. It reminds us that
another's poor behavior and bad acts are a manifestation of a warm
heart touching an outer coldness, and that like the steam,
it is ephemeral and always changing.
