It’s March, and for a few months longer on the northern hemisphere, until dimmed by the long summer days, the stars will strew the night sky. This is a good time of year to head out with your child after nightfall, to introduce her to the North Star, this fixed axis point on the firmament […]
movement
Home as a place that doesn’t exist
The global village tends no fire around which the children can gather. Its sophisticated arrogance is politely to sneer at domesticity as a lovely ideal, but ultimately a naive and inevitably temporary undertaking. It announces to anyone seeking to grow roots, that home is to be found everywhere, making sure that it is nowhere to […]
An invitation to lighten up
Children are full of spirit, passion, life force, vitality. It overflows. The world is new! The body amazing. Puddles are endless fun. Strawberries! The fur of a cat. Hard edge of a rock. (Ouch!) Tears. Up. Look. Sunlight through a fall leaf. The ocean waves. Your child can point you to where you’ve grown stiff […]
Your body says a lot to your child
Your child knows your body better than you might imagine. He knows the meaning of your hunched shoulders, the sound of your hurried heels on the floorboards, the slowly spreading smile before you get playful. Your body language says more than your words. The tone of your voice says more about your feelings than the […]
Music tunes your child’s spirit
In our fragmented and commercialized culture, it can be hard to know how to nurture your child’s relationship to spirit. You may not know yourself what it means for you to be a spiritual being, someone at home with all that is unknown, unseen, or beyond your understanding. You may not have an intact practice […]
Broken chrysalis
The world is being broken open, and you may break with it, like a chrysalis. This is one way we heal–breaking down whatever separates us from the whole. So rupture the cocoon of factory-mind, emerge resplendently winged. Take flight, by submitting to all that lies beyond this sugared shell spun like a spell around your […]
Let your child teach you how to move
Why did I tell my youngest boy to sit still at dinner? What possible reason would make sense here? “You can hurt yourself if you fall backwards.” “Your body needs to be calm while eating.” “You’re distracting others from their food.” Yes, sure, possibly, perhaps, maybe. More likely it’s because as a child I myself […]
Turn your family into a rebellious island of sanity
Start the revolution by making your family home a rebellious island of sanity and insane possibility. Create a home that’s your getaway, a place so good, so relaxing, so full of life that you have no desire to fly off to another distant promised land on a holy-day at an all-inclusive coddling factory. Tend the […]
Withhold or flow
Family energy stops flowing when you withhold your inner life. You might want to hide your endless worry from your overworked wife. You’re secretly fuming that your husband has left his underwear on the floor again. Or you hesitate to show your joy on a day that your partner is in pain. When you withhold, […]
Freedom to play
A child expresses her love for life through play. It’s natural. We are born with the gifts for spontaneity, fluidity, improvisation, acceptance, creativity, presence and a delight for learning. Given the slightest chance, children will form roving groups of peers that romp outdoors, far from the supervision of adults. A child who loses this freedom, […]
Be your child’s compass in times of transitions
The world is new to a child, so many things encountered and sensed for the first time, so many transitions from comfort into the unknown. Being born from the coziness of the womb into the harsh light of day. The slow descent of the sun and the onset of the dark night and dreamland of […]
Rock the boat, don’t tip the boat over
To remain standing on a paddle board you have to rock, move, roll. Stability requires a constant movement. Our partnership needs this movement too–arguments, disagreements, differences, misunderstandings–for there to be stability and continuous growth. Otherwise we inevitably sink into boredom, stuckness, stasis. Read comments or comment here
Flow with your child’s impulse
It’s so easy to miss. Your child says ‘Hey, let’s go check out the tadpoles’, and for some reason, known or unknown, you say no, sweetie, not now. And the moment passes, maybe for the summer. You have good reasons for not always indulging your child–chores, time, priorities, limits, plans, desires. But there are times […]