Matt Lauer in Bhutan

Above image from www.barmatours.com.bt

Above image from www.webwombat.com.au

Recently, I watched a video of Matt Lauer with young (elemetary school-age) monks in the country of Bhutan. He and an American woman very familiar with the culture of Bhutan kept speaking, with some amount of envy and astonishment it seemed, about how "happy," how peaceful the people of that country are. As they commented on this, my mind kept circling back to lessons that Eknath Eswaran, Thich Nhat Hanh and K. K. B. Fu-Kiau teach about how inner peace and contentment start with the individual, extend out into the immediate community and into the nation as a whole. It also spoke to how true education involves training a person to live in such a way that they grow a mature and fully-developed soul. I believe this is why in ancient times as well in some of today's indigenous cultures, "school" is logically connected to the places where spiritual rites occur-- be that in the thick of a forest, in a kiva or in the sanctum of a stained glass temple.

Holding On, Letting Go

I've heard people say that having a baby is akin to seeing your heart walk around outside your body. This implies that our children are one of the few things intimately and profoundly ours.
Then there's the Zen-like thing that Sweet Honey in the Rock has sung about: Our children are not our children. Hard pill to swallow, but true that.

I do see my son as the baby that I'm presently responsible for caring for. I am also looking down the road and sending a "prayer covering" to ensure that he becomes a make-it-happen kind of man of vision, confidence, love and humility. I want him to explore both the outer world and the interior of his own mind and soul. Already, my baby boy is well on his way.

As so many made sure to remind me during pregnancy and just after his birth, he's growing so fast! I love to see how strong, determined and alert he is. Always has been. Just that now he's getting coordinated enough to show it. As amazed and proud as I am to see him blossom-- can I be real?-- I hope that the man that he becomes has the same care and concern for his mama as his mama does for him. So, looks like I have the potential to be one of those clingy, pathetic types of mamas. God help us both!

I was watching a program on The Learning Channel last night where a 30-something woman and her silver-haired husband were playing with their infant and marveling at how big he'd gotten in such a short time. This made the woman want to have another baby. I know that feeling. Most women know that tugging kind of urge that starts in some nether-region of the brain and tugs on the heart strings and the fallopian tubes and comes when they see a pregnant woman or a young woman with a trail of young'uns traipsing behind. But even if one has twenty children, at some point all of them are going to grow. And go. What this speaks to is the need for us as parents, as humans, as developing souls to work on lessening our urge to cling, dealing with our fears of being alone. But when we get caught up on our spiritual work we're supposed to discover that we're never really alone, right?

So, now: How can we both nurture and resist our urge to be overprotective, encourage our children to honor their roots, origins and family and yet encourage step confidently out into the world? How do we help them to find their way to the wellspring of power within and gain a sense of community responsibility and inter-dependence?

Here's what one woman has to say:
So The Torah Is a Parenting Guide?