There was a time when your child rested snugly inside his or her mother's womb.  Nutrition and oxygen flowed easily from mother's body into child's through the umbilical cord.  The umbilical cord is a physical bond that nature establishes to enable the fetus' survival

Once born, that physical bond is severed and an emotional one takes its place.  This emotional bond also serves a survival purpose, as the newborn is helpless.  As your child grows the survival component of the bond diminishes.  What remains is a connection made up of a complex (and varying) combination of pure love, emotional entanglement, and vestiges of the survival instinct.  Your interactions with your child are mediated by these and other forces.  As a result, while some interactions are wonderful, others are not so easy.

Through the practice of mindful parenting, we tap deeply into the pure love component.  Its source flows from a well deeper than we can know and one that fills us with boundless joy.

At the gas station, the gasoline flows through a rubber hose into your car's gas tank.  This transfer is similar to the transfer of blood from the mother to the child through the umbilical cord.  The gasoline is an energy source that flows from deep in our beautiful Earth.

Today, if you fill your tank, place your hand around the rubber hose as the gasoline flows.  Open awareness to your child's presence by visualizing your child.  Sense the time before your child was born, when the blood flowed through the umbilical cord.  As you feel the gasoline coursing through the hose, relate it to the blood that once flowed between mother and child.

As your awareness opens to power of this connection, breathe deeply and sense the deep feelings of love and joy that continue to flow between you and your child.