Stephanie teaches the “peaceable being.”

Stephanie Pelly has a true gift of recognizing the magical spirit of children…and adults.  As a peace educator, she has spent over twenty years teaching in public, private, and Montessori schools where she implemented character education and bullying prevention programs throughout Bucks County, PA and Southern New Jersey. Her most recent work includes The Peace Center in Langhorne, PA and Naudain Academy – A Montessori School.  Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary and Special Education from Monmouth University in New Jersey.

Stephanie believes educating children must be hands-on, creative, and fun for both the teacher and students.  She is known for creating the image of the “Peaceable Being” which stands as a role model of good character in classrooms. Stephanie has evolved this creation into a “Design Your Own Peaceable Being” T-shirt and Doodle Art Pad.  She is currently seeking funding to produce and manufacture these products for children.  Her goal is to offer “products with purpose and great valuefor kids!”

The first week in April Stephanie begins conducting the Young Masters Little Wisdom Discovery Program, curriculum specifically designed for Montessori, at Montessori Children’s House in Moorstown, New Jersey and at Indigo Moon, a holistic center also in New Jersey.   She is co-creator of the Young Masters Little Wisdom curriculum program as well as many others.  Thank you for all you do for children!

 

 

The Practice Of Being

As a parent of adult children ages 19 and 21 I have experienced the time of rebellion, questioned my effectiveness and skill at being a parent and I have experienced the unmatchable love of a parent for a child and experienced that love from my children. I have given my identity, my purpose and my self to being a parent and claimed my Self back again. Did I do it perfectly? Who knows? Was it worth it? Yes! Today, I find myself serving as mentor, teacher, friend and spiritual leader for children of all ages. There is a child in all of us to be nurtured, inspired and to learn from. It is my great joy to share the journey.

I like to focus my parenting classes and lessons on the parent rather than the child. There are many, many great books, programs and teachers to guide parents in using effective parenting tools with your child. My question is: “How is life for you as you “raise” these precious little people?” How is your life (as a parent) as your child mirrors your behavior, beliefs, attitudes and even habits back to you? Our children are our very best teacher because they give us the opportunity to look at ourselves, to experience how we are viewing the world and how we are participating in life! Sometimes that is a great big ugh! I do that, or a version of that?  Really? And sometimes it is Yes!  Life is beautiful and it shows!

Yes, our children are our greatest teacher and yet we have the very impressive task of raising them to be responsible, compassionate, contributing members of society.  The life of a parent becomes a series of lessons in self reflection, self honesty and self responsibility. All practices that we model for our children and thus out of our own experience we teach.

What is this journey of life and parenthood but a time of self-discovery?  As a parent, from that time (planned or a surprise), of finding out we will be a parent it is a time of immediate questions:  what kind of parent will I be? How will my kid turn out? What preschool, public or private school, sports, college, career do I choose? What is best? And, how will I know?

There is one question that has served me well and that many parents have successfully utilized. It is the practice of being. When we ask ourselves: “how do I want to be” instead of “what do I want to do and how will I do it” we work from the inside out. Allowing the perfect action, the supportive words, the empowering response to be revealed. It is a practice to embrace and to become skilled at until it becomes a habit. Do I want to be suppressive? Do I want to be doubtful, do I want to judge?  Will that empower me or my child? Will it harm or sustain our relationship? Do I want to be loving, kind, compassionate, a good listener, a sounding board……  Asking the being question might look like being creative before we step into our child’s room to wake them up for the fifth time that morning and singing, or describing a perfect day or telling them all the reasons we love them, or…… What if you know how you want to be before telling them no? No, they cannot go to the party after all because you have to work? If we can pause long enough to ask ourselves “how do I want to be” before responding to the rolling eyes, the turned back, or sarcastic attitude what will the relationship look like?  Breathing and remembering our role as parent before looking at the report card that you already know is less than stellar and being the listener we might discover a challenge, a question, a fear that our child had not shared.

We want our children to be kind, be happy, be sincere, be themselves, be proud, be successful, and be the best they can be.  Life is about being. How do you want to be as a parent? What will you model for your children? Life is lived from the inside out. When we know how we want to be the doing is revealed.

As a parent, I encourage you to be yourself. You know your answers, you know your challenges, and you know your strengths… I know who you are is more than enough!

Pattie Mercado

About Pattie Mercado

“Let our children be seen and heard” is the motto of Pattie Mercado Youth Director and Practitioner at the Center for Spiritual Living Capistrano Valley. With an infectious and creative energy that inspires and motivates, Pattie is consistently retained for mentoring youth and family programs all over the country and is passionate about empowering the family experience.  A volunteer with youth and parents for more than twenty years Pattie draws on her experiences volunteering and working in California public schools, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, ten years of producing a summer co-op day camp and is a certified instructor recognized by the International Network for Children and Families. Pattie brings practical insight to her work with children, parents and volunteers.

This feature article by Denise Yeargin comes from a lifetime of unique experience. Find out from a parent who has a Masters degree in counseling, works currently as an elementary school counselor and served children and families for years as a Unity minister.  Read her thoughts about:

RAISING CONSCIOUS CHILDREN

There are many books and articles in our world today in regards to raising children.  So when I was asked if I would be interested in writing an article that would be on Bunny Hull’s website, I was truly motivated.  My experiences with children range from teaching music and creating dramatic productions with private school students and legally blind students at a state school, to being a professional school counselor with students from Preschool through the 8th grade.   I also was a music minister in a small Unity church in the late 1990’s, and used many of Bunny’s songs with children as we created portions of Sunday Services that were always as exciting for the students as they were for the adults who were listening.  Of course let’s not leave out the fact that I am the mother to two amazing young men who are in their teens and I was the minister of a Unity Church in Old Hickory, Tennesse for about 10 years.

I truly believe that children come into our universe much more “conscious” than the adults that already inhabit the planet. Children have not yet beenTwo boys with globe programmed by the world.  They are much more in tune to their feelings as a guidance system; however they are not able to take full responsibility for their own wellbeing, therefore, it does not take long for their self esteem to be wounded, their consciousness scarred.  So in answer to the question – how do we raise conscious children, I believe the answer is simple –  we remain conscious ourselves.  Sound easy?  I don’t know about you – but that is easier said than done.

I am in the process of writing a book that will accompany a cd of songs that my life partner, Judy Blackwelder has written to go along with the process. The book will be entitled Destined 4 Joy.  I have spent most of my life knowing how to be consciously joyful and unfortunately have allowed people, places, things or situations to steal that joy from me.  Every time that has occurred, I have gotten angry with myself because I “should” know better.  We all know what shoulding on ourselves gets us.  At 54 years young , I have finally learned to cut myself a bit of slack and realized that my moments of anger at others are becoming much shorter and my stints of consciousness are growing longer and stronger every day.  So I share with you the 4 things I believe help me attempt to stay conscious.  These are the same 4 things I have attempted to teach my sons and the students that I have worked with over the years.

  • Slow Down
  • Get Real Be Real Stay Real
  • Put Your Whole Self In
  • Show Up Pay Attention Tell the Truth Don’t Get Attached to the Outcome
  • Slow Down

We live in such a fast paced world.  We run from place to place and we even encourage our children to live the same fast pace.  Do more, try it all, be all that you can be.  Of course what kind of a parent would not want their children to be all that they can be?  The problems begin to mount up when the being all you can be stands in the way of having a childhood or living, loving and learning together in a family system.

When I was in elementary school there was a great song that I remember singing in a talent show called “Feelin’ Groovy.”  The beginning words were, slow down, you move too fast – you’ve got to make the moments last just kickin’ down the cobblestones, lookin’ for fun and feelin’ groovy.”  Sound familiar?  Some of you reading this may even remember the song.  I actually remember days like that – days when I just was able to run barefoot through the grass, climb trees, play kick ball in the street, sell lemonade on the corner, and help my momma dry the dishes after supper.  How many children in our society today get to experience any of these things?

I have many friends whose children go from school to soccer practice and ballet and private piano lessons and scouts etc. etc. etc.  Now don’t get me wrong,Children reflecting my children did take Tai Kwon Do and they are both in the Marching Band.  Those things have brought the entire family lots of joy watching and being involved in.  I think finding those things that are really important that can fit into your family’s routine and not completely take away all the collective family time are great.  Children still need to find time to spend at home eating supper with their parents, playing a game of Uno – something.  A slower, more gentle pace would give everyone time to create more of a conscious family life.

Get Real Be Real Stay Real

I work in a public school system, and although I enjoy what I do, I realize that within the system we are still attempting to create little clones of the “perfect child”.  I am in hopes everyday that as a school counselor, I have the ability to assist every child in finding those things that are “unique” to them.  As a Unity Minister, I teach young and old alike that there is a spark of divinity within every one of us.  That spark is a part of our oneness and also that thing that makes us distinctively us.

I am constantly reminded of one of my favorite children’s stories, the Velveteen Rabbit.  Within that story is a passage that has stuck with me for years.  The Skin Horse tells the rabbit that real has nothing to do with how you are made, but real happens when someone really loves you and then you become real.  What I know about many of our children and us is that we have been hurt and so we don’t allow someone to really get close enough to us to love us —  truly love us.  If I am going to get real, I first have to love myself enough to be myself and then secondly I have to remember to be that real self in each and every situation.  The staying real happens over time with practice.  —  Which leads me right into the next step.

Child reading intentlyPut Your Whole Self In

When I finally know who I am and show up real to people, places and things, I then can put that whole real self into any situation.  It is very tiring walking around attempting to figure out who can accept me as I am and who cannot.  When we are doing that we are not putting our whole beautiful God self into any situation.  I see children every day that are holding back.  They aren’t raising their hands for fear of having the wrong answer; they aren’t stepping into sports, or music, or other activities for fear of not being good enough.  Sound familiar?  When we as their parents and teachers and guardians model those behaviors to them – when we say things like I really wanted to be an artist but I chose to go into accounting because I could make more money –  what kind of message are we giving our children.  We are teaching them to do what the world wants them to do.

When I make choices to do what someone else wants me to do, I never really put my whole self in.  It is when I begin to listen to my heart and make sure my mind and my heart and my gut are in alignment with my decisions that I am able to put my whole self in.  Remember playing the Hokey Pokey?  Remember how much fun it was to put your whole self in and then to shake your whole self all about?  Isn’t that truly what life is all about?  Ask yourself in this moment, how different would my life be right now, If I had stepped into what made my heart sing when I was 20 years old?  Then and only then can I be in integrity with who I have come here to be.

Show Up –  Pay Attention – Tell The Truth – Don’t Get Attached to the Outcome

This is a powerful little process that I learned from several different sources.  Just google it and see all the references.  Now after you do that – begin to try it.  Show up.  Sound simple enough?  How many times do we make excuses in our lives and not show up or even do what we said we would do?  Do we think that our children don’t know that?  I have raised two Unity children from babies and they call me on my stuff continuously.  “Momma, you said….”  If we want to live a conscious life, we’ve got to begin by showing up first. Then there is pay attention.

How many of us say those words to our children many times each day.  I know as a teacher and counselor I have said those same words to many students, andStephanie and Boy with Magic Circle then I find myself walking through my day, not really paying attention to what a student is saying to me because I think what I am doing is much more important than anything they might be saying to me in that moment.  I know that many of us have been on the receiving end of that one and know how it feels to be ignored.  But the thing I want us all to hear is that this one little step is much deeper than that.  Many times what a small child has to say to us is much more profound and just the thing we need in that moment than any book, any tv program etc.  Try it for just one week and see how your life shifts.  Pay attention to the people, situations and things around you and see what you learn not only about them, but about yourself.

Tell the Truth –  well isn’t that a fine howdy do.  I know that we all would agree that we need to tell the truth.  How often do we find ourselves stretching the truth in order not to hurt someone; or telling what we call a little white lie?  And again this step is much deeper than that.  Telling the truth means that each step I take is in alignment with who I am as a person – who I have come here to be.  When I make those decisions throughout my day that are out of integrity with who I am, I am only putting myself on a path that I don’t really want to travel on.  And then somewhere during the next few days or months,  I always begin to blame someone else for the things that begin to happen in my life, when the actually I created them by not being my true self – not really telling the truth.   What is your truth?  Are you standing in it daily at home, at work, at play?  What about with each decision you make?

When I am willing to do the first three things, show up, pay attention, and tell the truth, then most of the time I am truly not attached to the outcome.  That one can be hard when we are not truly living our lives for ourselves, but living them for someone else or through someone else.  I will never have the life I truly want as long as I am not showing up as the person I came here to be   So – you say –  I thought this article was about raising Conscious Children.  This sounds like work for the adults.  And the answer is yes!  Yes – if we have children that are not living consciously where do we think they learned to live that way?   We must look in the mirror and have a long talk with ourselves.  What have I modeled to them – when I am not being conscious throughout my day –  when am I not present for them when they need me?

Raising conscious children is the only thing that will save our planet.  We as adults have created many messes that have had to be cleaned up by ourselves and by others.  If we want our children and our children’s children to make better, more conscious decisions in the future –  we must begin with us.  We must be the change that we want them to see, hear, feel and experience.   You are destined for a life of love, joy and peace.  It is really a simple, easy process of being conscious.  What will you choose?  What will you choose for your child?

Namaste’

Denise

You can be inspired by Denise by going to www.inspired-experiences.com

Denise Yeargin is a native of Nashville, Tennessee and at a very early age began singing, dancing, playing the piano, and acting.  Her undergraduate degree is in Vocal and Piano Performance with a minor in Drama.  She was the Music/Drama Specialist at Ezell Harding Christian School in Antioch Tennessee for 5 year – before deciding to take a deeper look at herself.

Denise entered graduate school and completed a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology.  At that time she became the Guidance Counselor at Tennessee School for the Blind.  She did Family and Children’s counseling for Woodmont Hills Counseling Center and was an adjunct professor for Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, TN.  During that same time she found Unity, and was a part of the praise and worship team for First Church Unity in Nashville.   After marrying and having two children she found a smaller Unity church closer to where she was living  and began attending.  On the second week there, she was asked to consider the Music Minister Position, which she held from 1997 – 2002.

In 2002, the minister there became ill and moved to Florida.  Denise had been working towards becoming a licensed Unity teacher and was getting ready to enter the Leadership Training portion.  At that time the Association of Unity Churches spoke to Denise and she was asked to be the “Spiritual Leader” of Unity Church for Positive Living.   Denise continued on her path as a teacher and counselor and entered the Field Licensing Program to become and Ordained Unity Minister.

Denise was ordained in March of 2009.  She continued with UCPL for about another year.  In August 2010, Denise resigned as the minister of UCPL and stepped back into the realm of professional school counselor.  She is a Pennington Elementary School which is part of the McGavock Cluster in Nashville.  She is the proud mother of two teenage sons who march in the McGavock Marching Band.   Her oldest son will graduate the school year and is looking to enter MTSU on a Band Scholarship.

Note To Authentic Self:

Nurturing My Children To Be Intentional, Happy and On Fire With Purpose.

Overheard: Two brothers, ages 8 and 5, having an argument:

Older brother:  “You have to stop being so mean!”

Younger brother:  “This is just how I was made!”

Older:  “God made you…everything about you…all the parts of your body, your feelings, all of that!  But the one thing God didn’t make is how you act.             Only you can control that.  Being nice is your decision and it’s only up to you.”

Younger:  “I know that it’s up to me!  I’m not a robot, you know!”

Not a robot. Noted.

We can learn a lot from kids if we’re paying attention.  I have that opportunity every day.  I work with children in a variety of settings as aAngie Miles sons sometimes-broadcaster who is also a literacy educator.  I’m also Mom to four sons.  Here’s where I usually pause for finger-pointing or wild laughter.  Yes.  I have four sons.  As mom to four boys (and wife to guy number five), I live in a house full of raging invincibility.  Low-key is a foreign concept here.  It’s rare to experience silent solitude that’s free of karate-chopping, toy-battling or cartoon-blaring.  Furniture is apparently made for handstands.  Hide and seek is an indoor sport.  And socks belong wherever they land.  My husband and I live with four connoisseurs of the chicken nugget.  Sometimes, it’s a little crazy-making. But it’s also chock-full of teachable moments.  And I take notes.

I note their questions:

“Will I get sick if I eat too many blazed donuts?”

“If I don’t eat all my dinner, am I still allowed to have berserk?”

“Had colors been invented when you were my age?”

I note their answers:

“If you sleep with your mouth open, a frog can get in your throat.”

“I hid my tooth because it’s too boring for the Tooth Fairy if it’s right under my pillow.”

“I’m allergic to milk, unless it’s on cereal.”

I note their questions but I especially note their wisdom.  This is from my oldest right after his eighth birthday:  “I think grown-ups spend so much time trying to learn new stuff that they forget what they already know…you know, the deep-down stuff.”

Hmmm.  How deep-down are we talking here?  What we knew when we were in grade school?  In preschool?  I think he meant the stuff we already had inside of us when we arrived here… day one on Earth… before the world turned us into robots.

Truthfully, sometimes we do act like robots.  Remember learning to drive?  We had to think about every little step.  “Turn signal on.  Lift foot.  Press down on brake.”  To learn, you had to consciously tell yourself what to do.  After many years as an experienced navigator, you don’t think about the steps. They just happen.  Conditioning takes over. But even with habitual tasks, it’s still important to bring SOME mindfulness so we’re not trying to text, eat soup or paint toenails while motoring.

A deliberate, conscious awareness is what happens when anything is brand new. We pay attention and give ourselves to the moment, but once the moment isn’t new, we switch to autopilot and act without thinking or feeling deeply.  We all tend to do this— with driving, with hobbies, with relationships… even with parenting.

But here’s the thing.  Life is new every day.  We may be missing the best parts if we’re unconscious to life.  People in crises sometimes report feeling more alive, because they are shaken out of complacency.  Losing a loved one can make a person more accepting of the faults and foibles of those still here.  When the shears of life lessons prune us, we sometimes become more in touch with the root, the heart, the source of what’s inside us.  But living in this deeper way is available to us all the time, without having misfortune prune us out of our conditioning.  It’s a choice, but we have to be aware that there is a choice.

When I was a full-time news anchor, I was often out in the community.  I spoke to kids in schools, in camps and in juvenile facilities.  I told them that every one of us is born with a diamond inside.  Some of us have made choices that polish our diamond so that everyone can see it shining brightly.  Some of us may have tarnished the diamond by making choices that are not worthy of us.  But the diamond is still there.  It’s still just as exquisite and just as valuable, even if it’s not shining so brilliantly.  No matter its condition, we can still polish that diamond.

Angie Miles and sonsWe help our kids by showing them how to recognize and embrace the value that is deep-down within them.  It’s not something we need to give them.  They’re born with it.  It’s not for us to change, even if we’d rather our children have emeralds or rubies inside.  We honor them and the divine best when we trust that whatever is intrinsically, organically inside them is infinitely beautiful and worthwhile.  Our thoughts, words and actions can continuously prove our genuine belief in them at all times.  We are not telling them they are infallible or better than anyone else or suggesting that perfection is required.  We are simply conveying through our thoughts, words and deeds that they and the universe are all just fine.  We emanate an abiding sense of well-being along with an attitude that affirms that we can participate in happy miracles at any time.

As a parent, this is my greatest opportunity (and responsibility):  to raise children who are intentional, happy and on fire with purpose.  To get there, they need a little help.  For starters, they need parents who model intentional, happy and on fire with purpose.  That’s no small thing!  I need to be connected enough to my own source to envision goals that are right for me, regardless of adversity, appearances or apparent failure.  And that’s just the beginning.

To live intentionally, I have to be deliberate… aware of my real self and conscious of my choices.  That means I respond in a mature and managed way to whatever comes my way, rather than simply reacting based on past conditioning, unchecked emotions or what other people say or do.  I can’t live as a robot and expect anything different from my young charges.

Intentional living means I take the time to know myself, to understand my past and how it’s shaped me, to excavate any repressed feelings and express them in a healthy way, so that I am liberated to live in the NOW rather than being held prisoner by the PAST.  Intentional living means I set a course for today and tomorrow and choose according to principle rather than according to unaddressed emotions or apparent ease.  This takes bravery… sometimes forgiveness (of self and others), and always steady, nerves of steel.  It takes being willing to laugh and be playful, even in the face of adversity.  It means taking the time to envision the best and highest for me and for those I love and living with confidence that my deliberate designs are coming true.  I help my children to live intentionally when I make it safe for them to explore and express all their thoughts and feelings, without fear of judgment or ridicule.

To raise happy children, it helps if I’m happy.  To be happy, I must simply choose to be happy.  But the catch is that the choice must be made over and over. Angie Miles sons When storm clouds rise, you notice them and then you choose to paint them.  Happiness does not ignore the black and gray of life.  It acknowledges and expresses and knows that black and gray can be the beautiful balance to the sunnier shades of life.  Happiness is allowing the storms to come and go, unfazed because serenity lives in a protected place where we trust life to unfold as it will.  If happiness is not a habit, it can be work to make it into a habit.  But it’s worth it if the result is showing our children how to be happy in the world.  I help my children to be happy when I set a bright tone in our home every day… with creativity, humor and playfulness that don’t deny the intensity of darker moods or concerns but that don’t get replaced by what is dark and difficult.

To be on fire with purpose requires seeking, risking and learning patience.  It is becoming familiar… through prayer, meditation, and listening… with that small voice inside… with that sense of knowing what there is to do that is uniquely yours to do.  It is following your passions constructively.  Purpose is knowing that only you can speak with your voice and you alone can make the contributions you came here to make.  It is knowing how very much you matter and embracing your responsibility to risk giving what is yours alone to give.  It is walking by faith along a sacred path, realizing that the journey is as important as the destination. I help my children to be on fire with purpose when I notice what matters to them, ask questions about their thoughts and feelings and desires and when I truly listen to them and speak to them as though they matter and as though I am sure they will accomplish all they set out to do.

Consciousness, quite simply, is being alert and aware.  But conscious living means a great deal more to me.  Conscious living is intentionality, happiness and purposefulness in every moment of every day to the best of my ability.  It is what connects me with the parts of myself that are gifted and funny and poetic and peaceful and divine.  It is what makes my life a song that lifts me and those around me… especially my children.  Conscious living is what reminds me to be mindful as I go through my day, reminds me that nothing is ordinary and all things are possible, reminds me that I am wonderful and a reflection of the sublime in everyone around me.

As I’ve said, my primary job as Mom is to teach my children how to live well.  They are more likely to create lives that are intentional, happy and on fire with purpose if I am showing them how.  As I learned in my graduate studies as a literacy educator, to teach anyone anything, we are wise to model it first.  Next we allow the student to assist.  Then we assist the student.  Finally, we allow the student to go it alone, to soar independently, confident that we have taught well.

I take this seriously as Mom and role model. Sometimes I must call on my nerves of steel, intentionally choosing to remain calm as the pediatrician is pulling pink erasers out of my child’s ears during a hearing test.  I am a good sport, playfully shouting “Hello!” when my youngest hands me a banana and tells me his friend Carlos is on the phone….again.  And, though bemused, I’m mild in my correction when I tell my littlest guy that we can, indeed, ride down on those stairs that are called the “escalator” and we don’t have to ride the thing called the “elevator” to which he has just referred as the “alligator” even though the “elevator” does not bite, not even a little.  A conscious parent will remember that we can help our children feel confident, even when corrected… rather than shamed or embarrassed… especially by errors that are developmentally expected.  Parents make errors, too.  I know that I do.

When my boys were all very small, I sought advice from experts and veteran parents.  I learned it was good for my children to hear praise more often than criticism… to be caught in the act of doing a good job.  I managed this fairly well.  They also needed to be allowed to do things for themselves.  They needed the practice of choosing their own clothes, dressing themselves, tying their own shoes… at developmentally appropriate stages.

It’s usually easier, faster, and more convenient to just exert our parenting power and get to what’s next. Sometimes I managed to give my kids the autonomy the experts advised.  Sometimes, I just needed to dictate, do-for and dash out the door.  Sometimes I did this too much and took away my children’s chances to build autonomy and self-reliance.  This is what we do all the time when we are parenting unconsciously, the robot way.  We, as parents, need order and compliance.  Easy when we’re much bigger and our children are much smaller and more easily intimidated.  But we may be denying our apprentices free choice and needed practice; this is compliance at a heavy price.

Spiritually speaking, we are not bigger than our children. By habitually putting our needs, feelings and preferences first, we allow our biological prowess to short-circuit our divine opportunity.  It’s not long before children grow physically taller and stronger than we.  When that happens, they may follow our rule and seek to please us, even for a lifetime, if they’re operating on fear or shame… if they believe that they could somehow lose our approval or our love.  That’s when we’ve raised children who are likely to be who we’ve told them to become…or to constantly seek approval outside of themselves… or to never reach their potential because they are rebelling against repressed feelings.  Is that the best we can do for them?

I find great inspiration in the story of the Wright brothers.  These lowly bicycle repairmen who combined genius and unconquerable faith to do what wasInspiration from the Wright Brothers thought to be impossible.  Their achievement wasn’t just becoming airborne.  That had been accomplished before, actually.  The Wright brothers winged their way into the air AND into history by steering the flight.  The breakthrough was flying WHILE choosing their direction… making a conscious choice about where to go and how to get there.

This is what we do in our lives when we live intentionally.  We appreciate that the sky is no limit AND we choose our course from a deep, authentic place.  We can make adjustments in how we fly based on current conditions, but true north stays the same.  Our principles, just like our intrinsic nature and innate worth don’t change.  We can adjust how we navigate to fit our circumstances.  And now we have autopilot to help us, as well.  This is a robotic way of flying, which is perfect when we already know the destination and don’t need to think about how to get there.  But we need to bring enough presence of mind to autopilot to make sure each of us is moving towards what is ideal for each of us.

Some have suggested that a magnificent sculpture is already within the rock and that the real artist doesn’t create the art so much as reveal it.  I would say the same is true with raising a conscious child.  The work of art IS each child, each person.  The treasure is already within the child.   The destination itself, the map of where to go, the blueprint for our best design, the dazzling diamond, the seed of the mighty oak, the work of art are all born within us.  Choose whatever metaphor you like, but the truth remains the same.  There is a deep-down knowing that we all have and that stays with us for a lifetime.  There is a world of possibility limited only by whatever mindset we choose.  When we work with this knowledge, with awareness and faith, we’re each bound to arrive at the perfect destination… and we’ll get there intentionally, happily and on fire with purpose for what we’ve set out to accomplish.

I am Mom.

I teach them.  They teach me.  I learn.  They learn.  We enjoy the journey.  And we find the hidden tooth inside the pillow case.  Noted.

Angie Miles is a veteran broadcast journalist and a long-time literacy educator.  Her website, www.happyreading.org gives educators, parents, librarians, counselors and community leaders information and instructional tools to help learners enjoy the journey to literacy success.  She lives in Virginia with her husband, Brad, and their four sons… aged 16, 13, 11 and (almost) 9.  She is currently working a on a book about raising their highly-spirited boys, tentatively entitled Straight to Heaven.