It is a joyful child inviting us to hum the familiar song held in the collective heart. In other words, we are being summoned to fully live our lives. It is a way of life for our children and grandchildren that activates their potential to support this joy of life.
This way of life is reestablishing the joy, love, and ecstasy of the Divine in the center of our lives and that of our children, grandchildren, and families. It is celebrating the mystery of the Divine in the entire material plane. A profound and most difficult question in this materialistic modern world is: How do we as parents and grandparents remember to maintain the Divine in the center of our lives, and to protect and/or establish that sacred and holy space and awareness in our children and grandchildren? How do we inspire them to stay attuned and to keep going even when the numbing pressures of the culture-of-death values seem so overwhelming in their lives? The aim of this book is to provide safe, sound, and time-tested tools, advice, and inspiration for all of us who trek this magnificent human journey of parenthood, grandparenthood, and other vital child-nurturing roles.
Alive parenting speaks to a yearning within each parent’s heart—a deep yet sometimes hidden yearning to guide, protect, teach, and nurture as a natural expression of one’s fullest aliveness. What is one’s fullest expression of aliveness? It is said, in Hebrew tradition, that the biblical Sarah was alive all the 127 years of her life. In other words, Sarah lived out her many years in the state of intimate, alive awareness of the Divine. While the stories, metaphors, and guidelines may vary from culture to culture, the yearning for full human aliveness is universal. Parental and grandparental love for one’s child or grandchild is also universal. Conscious Parenting is devoted to the support of the awesome unfolding journey of aliveness that resides as a potential within each and every parent/grandparent and child.
Unfortunately, people on all sides of all discussions tend to expand their conclusions or, in some cases, as highlighted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) exposés, simply falsify the data to make their egocentric or politically directed point.