8 years ago, on Saint Patrick’s Day, I was in the hospital having my dear son.  In those first weeks I was preoccupied, as all mothers are, with taking care of my most blessed of gifts.  I did not give much thought, in those earliest of moments, to his spirituality.  Spirituality, in those days, was always in the future...when he was older and better able to understand.  

     In the years since then, I have discovered that I didn’t really have to wait for him to get bigger to begin giving him the inspiration of spirituality.  Looking back, I see that even though I did not always realize that I was doing it, I was actually giving him spirituality every time that we were together.

     When he was really small, I would take him to the park and sit with him under the trees.  He would look up into the canopy and his eyes would widen and follow as the wind danced in the leaves.  As walking became his priority, we would spend time traveling behind little squirrels looking through the grasses for food.

     When the words coming from his mouth began to flow, we talked.  Not complicated conversations, but about wispy dandelion fur that we sent out into the atmosphere.  About how each seed could eventually land in rich soil and grow.  We spoke, then, of the feel of the earth beneath us as we sat in the sunshine looking up into the clouds... searching out the pictures that can be found there by those  who take the time to look for them.

     Even in the lessons of the ABCs and 123s during the preschool years, we found that we were inadvertently seeking out the divine.  We learned, together, that there was sacredness in the many forms of communication we have with others. We learned that math wasn’t just about adding and subtracting the mundane...but that we could use it in taking the time to count our blessings and our life’s lessons.

     Science allowed us to look at the tiniest of life forms beneath a microscope to see that, even there, we had a connection to something bigger...simply in our awareness.  Social Studies taught us how our decisions and actions affected the rest of our world.  Health taught us how the decisions and actions of others could potentially affect our microcosm.  

     Every day of my son’s life, he has been taught mundane things, but in those mundane things can also be found the sacredness of spirituality.  

     If we go at life, with this in mind, perhaps we can all come to realize that our interactions with our children...no matter how mundane, are some of the most spiritual of our lives.  Perhaps if we allow ourselves to seek out the sacred in every day adventures with our children, we will come to realize that our children help to create the spiritual within ourselves.

     In such lessons in life, we teach our children (and ourselves) that little moments count in big ways, and that there is magic in our connections with others.  In seeking the spiritual in our relationships with our children, we might just be a little more aware of how lucky we are...not just on Saint Patrick’s day, but in everyday that we are blessed to be in the company of our children.

Namaste'
Arianna