Mindfulness and family - The books that keep me inspired
If you’re a reader, like me, I imagine you have a few books that you keep returning to, over and over. I’ve had different ones at different stages: books that were just right for who I was. Books that spoke to me, or urged me to see things differently, or challenged me to grow.
Right now, I find myself returning to The Awakened Family: How to Raise Empowered, Resilient, and Conscious Children by Shefali Tsabary. When I first picked it up, I wondered what it meant by awakened. For some authors “awakened” means something like “focused” or “calm.” I think that’s a thin definition. I think, as we dig in to what awakened means, we need to dig into the parts of us that are asleep, or unaware. Awakening isn’t a state; it’s a process.
Tsabary’s book led me to appreciate something else about awakening, though: the way it encourages us to look outward and inward at the same time. She writes about the way children hold up mirrors to us. We can look in those mirrors and see ourselves reflected. I think, all the time now, about what I want to see reflected back. It’s made me a better, more mindful, more connected person. And in seeing myself for who I really am, I can see my family for who they really are, too. They’re curious, funny, kind, impulsive, interesting. They’re changing and growing and becoming. We’re all of us changing and growing and becoming. We’re finding our paths, and helping each other navigate.
What is helping you find your path this year? What are you awakening to? What is calling you?
-Page
Farmer & Cultivator
