making room for children

Spiritual resource to share:

childlike curiosity and goodness

We could all come up with dozens of qualities to list when it comes to children: joy, innocence, spontaneity, honesty (sometimes brutal honesty!) So when a respected healer and friend made the comment that we should all get more children in our lives - I knew what she was getting at. We all desire more of those childlike qualities, and we all needed to make more room for those qualities on our lives.

For some, this comes in the way of wanting to have children. But there are lots of other ways this can happen. The idea is to be open to children -- totally open, and see what shows up.

I have a favorite example of this. I once worked under a nursing home administrator as part of a course I was taking. This nursing home was very innovative in that it looked at the rich experiences of its residents and used their resources to enhance everyone's life at the facility.

So the residents ran their own convenience store and consignment shop, volunteered in the community, and taught and took a wide variety of classes from the typical arts and crafts classes to discussions on death and dying. But the BEST thing they did was to rent part of their space out to a child care program.

The administrator recognized the need for purposeful activity and the supply of grandmotherly love and wisdom that existed at the nursing home. She could also see that some overworked daycare workers needed to get some support in caring for their very young charges. The result was winning! Arrangements were made so that the child care program moved in to the lower level of the nursing home. Soon wagonloads of children were carted through the halls to the delight of the residents. The children’s chirpy greetings and laughter were infectious! Then those who could go and visit the child care room were put to work holding babies, rocking and singing and reading to them. It was brilliant!

Once when my oldest decided to go to boarding school, I was at a momentary loss. But it was a happy and progressive decision, and I realized that I wasn't losing anything (or anyone). In fact, it opened up possibilities to host other students at our house. I realized we could open up our house to all of our son's friends. This month, we had 11 of his dorm mates over for the weekend and last weekend all 22 of his cross-country team members and coaches spent the afternoon at our house after their state meet.

I'm convinced that no matter where we are in life - young and wanting to start a family, having a family and seeing your kids launch toward independence or retired - children - with all their joy and frankness and innocence - can always be a part of our lives.










To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.