Pagan Parenting

Letting it Flow

I attempted to force out a Family Values article this month but in the interest of practicing what I was preaching I decided to try again next month.  The flow was not happening.

Going with the flow in parenting is a lesson that is hard to keep up with.   It is a challenge that is constantly facing us and it seems that kids move with natural rhythms with more ease than we do.   If they are tired they sleep, if they are hungry they eat.   When we try and inflict our ideas of schedules and such we can often present a conflict to the very primal emotions they feel.   But at the same time children need routine and predictability to feel secure and to blossom.   So the flow can mean letting natural rhythms coincide with routine and creating a system for your family that is not necessarily typical but fosters a healthy home life.

Parenting from this place requires us to tap into the element of Water.  Water does not think about how to move around a rock or other obstacle in its path it simply moves around it.  It adapts to situations swiftly .  I often find myself cringing when I realize that time has moved more quickly than I had anticipated in a morning and my son has moved from tired to cranky/tired and will soon have a meltdown.  Rather than worrying I would aspire to have faith that he too can adapt as he has proven to me many times.   My job is to try and avoid asking too much of him, making his water energy spin in too many circles of newness.

As parents we are expected to anticipate moods and desires but often our anticipation doesn’t necessarily have to occur, it is just one possibility in many possible outcomes.  The lesson of water is to anticipate but not hold onto the outcome rigidly.   Let yourself be pleasantly surprised at being prepared for the worst but having something not so bad happen.  Be open, be resourceful and most of all enjoy moving with a steady rhythm, like the constant beat of waves on the shoreline.  Your child will feel that fluidity and the rhythm will impart stillness and calmness to them.   And when conflicts occur as is natural and inevitable in day-to-day parenting try reciting a little chant or visualizing cool water gently flowing around you and your child, breathe and try again.

Water Chant for Flow in Parenting

Water, water move and flow

Water, water let it go

Water help calm feelings come

Water renew everyone