Back in November of 2011, I wrote a post here on WMB titled “How We Pray”. This addressed how my husband and I foster spirituality in our home without following any one specific religion. I’m in the process of reflection on these efforts, so I decided to write an update.
We continue to say our daily intentions as mentioned in the previous post, but I have added to our morning routine a spiritual thought of the day pulled straight from Deepak Chopra’s “Seven Spiritual Laws For Parents.” Pictured below is a well-worn paper taped to our kitchen wall.
It lists one spiritual idea for each day of the week followed by a kid-sized tagline. Each day we say the spiritual word along with its meaning. Then we talk about how we can implement that in our day at home, school, or work. Are these talks lengthy? Well, they are usually over breakfast, so it depends on how hungry everyone is and how much coffee I have consumed. But it’s a touchstone that we consistently come back to, and my 7 year old understands the difference between karma and dharma, so I count it as a successful undertaking.
We also reaffirm the Christian importance behind holidays like Christmas and Easter while continuing to explore other faith-based celebrations. Each winter, we pull out a craft book that talks about the various festivals of light around the world. Hanukkah is a particular favorite of my older son, and he always makes menorahs out of paper to decorate the house. He also has a dreidel, and we play for candy.
I try to keep my eyes open for other opportunities to expose my kids to different ways of prayer. On our recent vacation to the island of Kuai in Hawaii, I read about a Hindu monastery that had visiting hours. My husband thought I was nuts for wanting to take our energetic 7 year old and willful toddler to a monastery with strict dress and conduct codes. However, I argued that if it was in the guide book, it was fair game.
Sure enough, there was a gazebo at the entrance that had sarongs you could borrow to cover up appropriately while the rules of conduct were posted everywhere so you knew where to go and how to act. Wrapped in sarongs too big for them, our children behaved beautifully as they tip toed around the grounds. We didn’t enter the prayer temple, but we walked in the sacred gardens, admired beautiful statues, and read about the principles of Hinduism. They also had an area where you could write down a concern or emotion blocking your happiness and burn it in a fire. My husband, my older son, and I each made our own offerings and walked away a little lighter.
The monastery had a gift shop where they sold various books, spiritual aids, and art. My sons got to choose souvenirs, and both wanted rudraksha prayer beads. This side trip ended up being one of the highlights of our vacation, and my sons keep their prayer beads on display in their bedrooms at home.
For our most recent spiritual exercise, my older son and I read together “A Pebble for Your Pocket” by Thich Nhat Hanh. This is a wonderful book for children about the principles of Buddhism. Covering the concepts of mindful breathing, walking meditation, and the practice of being present in every moment to find happiness, it was a powerful reminder to me to be more intentional each day as well as a an accessible introduction of these principles for my son.
I gave him a little statue of Buddha to keep in his room among his other faith-based keepsakes. When he opened the box with the little Buddha inside, I asked him if he knew who it was supposed to be. He said it sort of looked like Santa because he was fat and jolly. I guess it all blends together in our home. But if we are attentive to the present, kind and loving to ourselves and others, and tolerant of those who differ from us, then I say we’re doing just fine. Namaste.
How do you address spirituality in your home?
This has been an original post to World Moms Blog by Tara B. of Washington (State) USA.
Photo credits to the author.
Tara,
It is interesting to read about how moms around the world’s beliefs mix into their every day lives. Thank you for sharing this personal journey with us!
Great post!
Jen 🙂
Fabulous ideas, Tara. I’m going to steal some of them. 😀
Loved this post Tara – what a great way to open your boys’ eyes to religions all around us! And the opportunity to teach while you are traveling – big bonus 🙂
I mentioned before that I truly love how so many of us at WMB embrace spirituality and respect other people’s religious practices. I have great hope for the generations to come, who were raised in this way.
Even the new Pope has embraced and welcomed religious leaders of other Faiths and is encouraging co-operation and respect. 🙂 Namaste.
Thank you all for chiming in ! I have been traveling and not on top of responding to comments, but I sure do appreciate them. Just writing about this is prompting me to keep the ball rolling. We just got a kids book from library about the Muslim faith, about which I know very little. I’m excited to learn more about it as a team with my son.
I welcome your ideas, too, on exposing kids to different forms of prayer. Keep the comments coming!
Great post Tara B.!Thank you so much for sharing. My goals for my son are very similar in terms of exposing him to everything and introducing him to my own version of spirituality (which is ever-evolving). I’m constantly amazed by what he picks up on. He’s watched me meditate and do Yoga since he was 6 weeks old and he loves miming me as I do both. We have a few statues of Buddha around the apartment and sure enough “Buddha” was one of his first words. We have a practice of setting an intention each morning and then making an offering to the Buddha, which includes the traditional Korean three bows, and he is downright giddy about it each morning. It’s so satisfying to see him curious and embracing this, even if he doesn’t quite understand it yet. My hope is that by talking about it and continuing to be curious myself, he will have an open mind and heart and find his own path as he gets older.
Thanks for such an inspiring list!
p.s. I’m totally stealing the Deepak Chopra list … Love it!
Mrs. V. – I can picture your son! My boys will do yoga with me to a point, and then it turns into a circus with them crawling all around me. I suppose it’s a good test of focus 😉 Thanks for your comments!