A Selection Of New Books For Parents
The dance of family relationships can be very delicate. As a relatively recent parent I am always looking for new ways to educate myself on the parent-child relationship, and how to best support the growth of my child in all aspects of life. Reading the following three books has been a wonderful opportunity to learn new methods of teaching and communicating as a mother.
Intuitive Parenting by Debra J. Snyder PhD (Beyond Words; beyondword.com) is a must-have for all parents facing any type of challenge with their children’s health. Dr Snyder is a wonderful teacher in the area of spiritual connection to your child. Through her own challenges with her daughter’s diagnosis with microlissencephaly, she was able to find an alternative way of communicating with her. Her daughter is nonverbal, so Dr Snyder developed a communication style she calls Heartglow. This method is not exclusive to nonverbal children, and can be used with all children, of any age. The Heartglow method is easy to use, and explained in a very approachable, loving way. I must mention that there are parts of this book that are simultaneously lovely and heart-wrenching, and you will need a large box of Kleenex nearby when you read it. This is a beautiful true story of one mother’s ability to share her small victories with parents everywhere.
Soul to Soul Parenting – A Guide to Raising a Spiritually Conscious Family by Annie Burnside MEd (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing; wyattmackenzie.com) is a valuable book for parents who are looking to develop spiritual awareness in their families. The author takes time to help families find the potential for spirituality in the everyday rhythm of life, rather than exploring advanced or esoteric practices. Burnside writes often about letting go of “role to role,” relationships, such as parent to child or neighbor to neighbor, and embracing the idea of “soul to soul” interaction. She offers twenty-two specific techniques you can use to invite soul to soul interaction into your own family, in very practical terms. For example, Burnside suggests seeing the car as sacred space for family interaction, and she has renamed her own car the Spirit Mobile. Within the Spirit Mobile, she and her children have written the words trust and joy in bubble letters on the steering wheel and glove compartment. Her children are invited at times to be completely quiet and enjoy nature while in the car. Burnside has found a simple way of inviting children into a meditative state within the natural flow of their day. The book is filled with many such examples, and at the end of each chapter she includes suggestions for books, films and music to help inspire different feelings and states of being in your own family. This is a wonderful read for those parents who are newer to spiritual teachings and techniques.
A Mindful Approach to Parenting by Geoff Bell Devaney (Free Dog Press; freedogpress@yahoo.com) is fantastic for busy parents. The book is extremely practical, in that there are only two tips or insights on each page. For parents who are always on the go, this is a great book to take in small servings of wisdom. Phrases such as, “One way of staying open to life is by accepting your child’s ever changing moods,” and “Become one with the moment, and you become one with life,” are simple yet powerful. Each page could lead into a full discourse on parenting and life, but it is nice to peruse the book and see which ideas you are drawn to. Every idea is also a great conversation starter for parents to examine how they are working together, and what could be changed or improved upon. Bell-Devaney’s book is easy to read and offers lots of food for thought.
Desi Bartlett MS CPT is a Pre and Post-Natal Yoga Instructor at Exhale’s Center for Sacred Movement in Venice, California. Desi appears in several Yoga DVDs including Prenatal Yoga, Yoga for Beginners and Better Belly Yoga. For more information please visit: desibartlett.com
Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, and Yoga? The momentum of Yoga, from its arrival on American shores, continues to swell into our neighborhoods, suburbs, downtown centers and schools. In the captivating and well-researched book, The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America, Stefanie Syman sets out to tell how the momentum began, heated up, waned, was transformed, and now exists in the ultimate nation of reinvention.
The Subtle Body begins on Easter Sunday, 2009, when First Lady Michelle Obama hosted the traditional Easter gathering on the White House Lawn. The journey of how Yoga became an acceptable White House event starts like many American stories do, asserting independence. Who would have thought a poem in the 1857 first issue of the Atlantic Monthly titled “Brahma” would have sprung out from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s pen as something richly “American?” Influential thinkers, writers and poets who were eager to eschew the paternal string of Europe looked further East asking questions and finding answers.
For over one hundred years, gurus, impresarios, lotharios, philosophers, hippies, sadhus, professors, dancers, socialites and swamis all assisted in challenging, transforming and identifying the nature and identity of Yoga today in America. We can safely say Yoga, as it’s intended inside any studio in America, is probably better performed without acid, yet we still inch towards a deeper and personal understanding of just what Yoga is or means. Perhaps taking root in such a large and young country, Yoga can be at home here and have plenty of room to grow.
The Subtle Body, which Syman eludes to ever so slightly, is a great compendium, giving us cause to understand where our American Yoga lineage came from and possibly, more importantly, where it might be going. Visit: thesubtlebody.net.
–– Reviewed by Leslie Hendry a freelance writer in Los Angeles.
Red Buddhist Envelope: Morgan Zo
Callahan
Bosath Children’s Educational Foundation
We learn from those of us who are also walking the path, with sincerity, stepping one foot in front of the other, carefully negotiating the pitfalls, practices, joys and jubilations. In this collection of essays, poems, interviews and other writings, Morgan Zo’s beautiful and lyrical prose offers insight and inspiration in each chapter. He is truly walking the path.
Even though the title of his work is Red Buddhist Envelope, Morgan Zo’s story of the spiritual path is an ecumenical one as his musings include reflecting on the meditation teachings of St. Ignatius as well as words about his Christian mentors. Morgan interviews Buddhist teachers and dives into a description of Native American friends and spiritual influences. Within these pages, he speaks of life and death with equal compassion and clarity, and his reflections on his adopted mother’s death, learning about his birth mother and his encounters with pioneering education Elisabeth Kubler-Ross are all life-affirming and enlightening to read.
Moments in the pages are poignant, such as his quote, “I met an elderly Catholic nun at a Yoga class and ask her why she finds it beneficial. ‘So my heart can listen more un-distractedly to the Lord. I have a scatter-mind.’
And in this work that extols the teachings, the teachers and the path, Morgan quotes Wei Wu Wei, “Disciples and devotees…what are most of them doing? Worshipping the teapot instead of drinking the tea!”
Morgan Zo is definitely drinking the tea in Red Buddhist Envelope. In doing so, he inspires us to pour our own cup.
This book is being sold as a fundraiser for the Bosath Children’s Educational Foundation. Copies can be purchased for $18 (which includes shipping) with a check to Morgan Zo, sent to: Ell Corp, 5641 Loma Avenue, Temple City, California 91780. For more information about Morgan Zo’s other work, visit: sites.google.com/site/intimatemeanderings.
–– Reviewed by Felicia M. Tomasko, RN
