onsdag den 1. august 2012

Spiritual childhood

“in receiving her life into my care I was agreeing to uphold a sacred trust — not only to feed, clothe, and protect her physical body but to nourish and protect her soul-life as well.” Author on birth of her first child.

I have been reading Shea Darian's Sanctuaries of Childhood and it has filled me with ideas for spiritual activities to do when Alia gets older. Especially the chapters on music and poetry really made me think about my own childhood and how my mother filled my world with magic, and though she was not religious she made space for spirituality because she felt I was attracted to it.

 I wish to fill Alia's life with the same magic and spirituality both in the form of the daily prayers and also through interacting with nature, storytelling, music and poetry. The book offers so many ideas on how to weave music and prose into the pattern of everyday life in a natural way, and has the sweetest little prayers and songs that the author (a multi-faith director) used herself as she raised her children.

At times I become overwhelmed with the responsibility of caring for my daughter's physical well-being and I forget that her soul and heart requires just as much care and attention and that the physical and the spiritual are interwoven.  The book tells how just as a mosque, church or synagogue is a place that nurtures the soul, our homes can also be transformed into sanctuaries in which our spirits can take nourishment. All I can do now is pray that I may be able to carry out this task and make our home, wherever it may be, a place of prayer and broad-mindedness.

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