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.
Click here to learn more about making a
submssion. We thank everyone who has contributed or is considering
making this very compassionate contribution.
Click
here to learn what
recent events are taking place and of changes to The Mindful Parent
website. Please
contact us with your questions about mindful
parenting or to share a mindful parenting experience. We are
devoted to working with you to enhance your ability to "be" with your
children, and to experience the bliss that awaits you.
The Daily Sip: There
Is No
Running For Parent
Today in the United States of America,
votes will be cast, tallied, and people across the country
will be selected to govern -- to make decisions affecting our
welfare and influencing the course of our futures.
We may or
may not approve of who is elected into office, but for those among
us who are eligible to vote, we participated in the process.
And, in a set number of years, that process will be renewed.
The
intrinsic relationship between us and our child is a very special
and different one. We were not chosen by our child to be his
or her parent (at least not in an obvious way). We were not
elected into the office of parent. Nor do we come up for reelection.
Thus, our positions, as parent, are secured.
When our child
is young, he or she demonstrates a tenacious allegiance to
our commands, as if we were a much loved monarch. Then, as
our child matures, he or she becomes increasingly independent -- the
allegiance is tested and can become strained. When our child
reaches the age of majority -- the very age he or she becomes eligible
to vote -- we lose our legal right to make decisions affecting our
child's welfare and directly influence the course of our child's future.
Wherever
your child is in the course of his or her maturation, the following
verse reminds us of this precious balance, which, when we open
awareness to its mystery, can be the source of great joy.
My beautiful baby adores me
My teenage child searches
My adult child becomes herself
