What do I mean by all of this?

I haven't been writing here in a while. I guess I got busy with other things, I got nervous about putting my voice out there and I've had some issues with my computer ever since a huge thunderstorm. But here I am, back at it, and re-inspired.

What do I mean by parenting as a meditation? I was just throwing some new fabric into the washer to make Sweet Darling a couple super hero capes and I started thinking about this blog. What do I even mean by meditation? Well, meditation is a time to be quiet, to be relaxed, to be focused, to listen to inner wisdom, to listen to the Divine. It's a time that one chooses to take for oneself, on purpose, and with purpose. When people devote themselves to meditating, they aim to do it daily (or at least regularly). There are all types of meditations and all kinds of people doing it. People meditate to quiet their thoughts, to remember who they are and to collect themselves. To connect to God or the collective consciousness or to some other sort of spiritual feeling. To remember truth. To listen. To improve the quality of their lives. To deepen their understanding of life and how to live it. Well, these ideas are among my reasons for parenting and how to parent.

I think children have a way to help us connect to the spirit world. They are so close to the spirit world. They come to us knowing how to connect and wanting to stay connected. We, as adults, have learned how to disconnect from each other, from spirit, from God, from ourselves, from just being. We learn this, by watching the adults in our lives and the world around us. It's no one's fault, it just seems to be what has been happening for some time.

Well, meditating is a way to bring us back to present, to now, to truth. Parenting can do just the same thing if we let it. Staying present while our mind wants to run in a million directions isn't easy and there are so many techniques for quiet meditation to help improve this calming of the mind. But what about parents? Quiet? Well, I don't strive for a quiet home, I believe in making noise and in allowing children to make noise. But I do like to quiet to old thoughts, the reactionary thoughts, that want to jump out of my mouth (and sometimes do), to tell Sweet Darling about how to live, how to think, what to do, when to do things, how to change herself to be more liked by the general public, how to express herself, when to express herself, etc... I just tell my mind to quiet. What if we don't have to make every moment and "teaching moment"? What if we believe that our children are learning no-matter-what, and we simply allow that? Or even, what if we believe our children are complete human beings, with something to add, to teach us, to show us, how to just be? What if we allow ourselves to learn from them about how to stay more present and centered and connected?

I find that many parents want alone time to think and meditate and be quiet. What if alone time isn't necessary? What if we can find this in the day to day, with our children? What if we can use time with our children to be relaxed, focused, attentive, open, receptive, connected and peaceful? What if we can find peace during really active, connected, loud, play? What if we push our kids away less, and learn to really just be, with them? What if we allow time with our children to transform us and better our lives, just like we aim to get from meditation? I think that if we keep quieting our minds, opening our hearts, and staying in the now, then time with children can improve our lives in more ways than we could ever imagine.