When the raising of children
moves with the rhythms of their soul
and Mother Earth
then we will have woken up.
Nothing rushed,
nothing forced,
just enough structure to
allow what wants to unfold
to happen
in its sweet soulful time,
trusting and honouring divine order,
the higher nature and agenda
of the child,
and that of life.
While looking at children from our physical eyes, let’s also remember to see our little wonders from the eyes of our soul.
What might we discover, and remember, if we did?
Perceiving from our physical eyes we delight in their bright smile and twinkling eyes. We cherish their playful exuberance — their sudden spiral twists and cartwheel turns, and mud puddle stomping explorations; we savour their latest finger paintings and intimate adoration of animals and people. We take to heart these precious experiences with help from our two precious eyes.
From the eyes of our soul, however, we see something else, something far beyond the temporal landscape, this parentheses of time.
Parting the veil of form and peering deeper into the hiddenness of children, we recognize and remember them as powerful, wise and ancient beings, like ourselves. We behold and hold them as being from another place and time; not as belonging to us or this world, but to Great Mystery, the Unfathomable Love of our Divine Mother, God, whose children we all are.
Seeing from the eyes of our soul we recognize that we cannot own this mysterious bundle of wonder before us, in the same way we cannot own this planet, or Mystery. With heartfelt in-sight, we remember that we are here as humble guides and gracious stewards of both children and nature, to live in sacred harmony with the interwoven physical and spiritual expressions of each.
Perceiving children from both our outer and inner eyes inspires us to honour them for their outer and inner dimensions — for the human and being they are; the human of the Earth, and the being not of this world, but who continues on, forever, like each of us. Knowing ourselves as a unified human being empowers us to give the emotional, mental and physical care children need, while also honouring their spiritual selves existing far beyond their Earth years — their boundless, ancient souls temporarily expressed and dressed as small children.
Recognizing and honouring their spiritual dimension, the dimension of being, a subtle and needed summoning transpires. Our generous divine seeing, anchored in our loving hearts, elicits their limitless creative power, the wise ones they are, without a single word spoken. Silent seeing communicates a silent permission from our knowing hearts to theirs to be their radiant Higher Selves, and to dance with unbridled de-light as spirited, embodied human beings.
We say an emphatic Yes to their soul by our presence-infused loving gaze, a piercing, honouring love that sees through and transcends all form. This is the love of Masters and the Divine Mother who forever hold you in your highest light, no matter the dark roads you travel, no matter how lost you get in the simulacrum of form.
“Love is seeing someone for who they are, and holding them in that place.” ~ Lynda Austin
* * *
Love is not authentically whole, however, if not infused with respect, a quality children have been greatly deprived of over the centuries. This is a respect that holds children in their pure divinity — as innately capable, resourceful, creative, powerful, wise, loving and innocent. This is a respect that sees children not as empty vessels needing to be filled, but vessels of infinite love, wisdom and gifts longing to be expressed.
This is a respect that, ultimately, in its distinguished, divine expression, is honour. In honouring children, we not only recognize the aforementioned inherent Truths of who they are, but curiously and creatively draw them out.
For example, by asking questions and listening more, and telling less; by playing with them in their magickal Unicorn–Dragon–Mermaid world, versus imposing our adult world upon them; by saying Yes And more, and Yes But less; by caring more about their dreams today, irrational though they may seem, and sacrificing our dreams for them that may have nothing to do with who they are, and why they are here — and that are thus irrational.
Honouring is the creative he-art of playing along in another’s heartfelt world.
The more we honour a child’s sovereign, whole, brilliant divinity, the easier it is to trust the guiding light of their higher intelligence — an intelligence that, like the Breath of Life, is inseparable from that of the Divine Mother. We have faith in and humbly bow to the larger mysterious plan only their soul knows, spaciously allowing their whispering Higher Self to guide the child towards their soul lesson plan, their raisin d’être in this incarnation; which will include bumpy challenges they’ve come to experience.
With honour and trust in our hearts, not just of the soulfulness of children, but the ancient orchestrating wisdom of life, there is less of a desire to control the child’s unfolding. With help from occasional deep breaths and heartfelt prayer, we lead less and curiously follow more. We say Yes to them, their mysterious Way, and thus say Yes to Mystery.
The etymology of “education” comes from the Latin “educere,” which means to draw out; hence to educe. The he-art of education is not putting in, though necessary at times; rather it’s joyfully calling forth creative divinity into human existence, thus bringing Heaven to Earth through each angelic child.
At times children of course need support expressing their creative, curious soulfulness, their feelings and purpose for being here. That is essential to our divine purpose with them — to create the safe, nurturing container for their becoming; to bring the needed structure and limits, balancing this with encouraging their unstructured, wild freedom.
Listening to our Holy Hearts, the wisdom within, helps us sense the right balance — how many rocks to place around their wild flames, and how close, such that the heat and light of their soul is safely held, while uncluttered space and spiralling fresh air abundantly breathe life into their sacred fire.
Only the heart knows the balance, a hea(r)t woven into the Ancient Diaphanous Flame and guiding wisdom of the Divine Mother of All Life. An intelligent heart that knows instinctively how to honour the light of life.
* * *
Honour, if only respect of children, have been grossly missing in euro-western cultures for millennia, especially since the rise of patriarchal cultures and dualistic, fear-based theologies promoting redemption from “original sin.” How do you honour the rich divinity of a child if, from the start, he or she is deemed unworthy? How do you honour the innate wholeness of a child if he or she is not complete without the Church, and its “gatekeepers to heaven?”
Programmed to believe that we are inherently flawed and lacking from cradle to grave, humans have suffered greatly. This spiritually impoverished consciousness that has barely dipped its toes into the deep well of the emotional body, let alone divinity, has further projected this ignorance onto animals and Nature as a whole — through an unwillingness to respect, if not honour Mother Earth, and to see her body as being one with our own — our earthbody.
Compare this pained, disconnected way of being and relating to spiritually rich traditional cultures that have, since time immemorial, honoured all expressions of life, particularly children. In indigenous cultures across the world, little ones have been the heart of the tribe, the centre of the community circle, with all hearts and eyes glowing with pride and love for them. With little bare feet and hands touching and exploring dirt, grass, wild water, and animal friends, families have honoured the sacred role Mother Earth plays as the other trusted parent — a wild parent who gives full permission to children to stumble and fumble, and to explore their wild and free souls, particularly through the wonders of play.
Play is the soil
from which a child grows.
Let her flower
naturally,
organically,
and in her
own timing.
The painful dark night of the soul, spanning 5,000 years, in which we have grown up traumatized and unseen, shamed and shut down, disconnected from one another and from Nature, is ending now. It is time to return to giving love, respect and honour to our precious little ones, from the start, in all their dimensions — physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. We do this to the degree we love, respect and honour these dimensions within ourselves. We give the joyful permission our children desire and deserve to be themselves as we first grant silent permission inwardly — as we say Yes to our radiant Soulful Self.
With self-awareness and healing, we lift the fears, shame and limiting beliefs that have created the edges of our child’s playground — their learning, development and soulful becoming. Gradually, we project less onto them, no longer moulding them into the likeness of ourselves — into how we were raised and expected to be, into how society thinks we should be. Instead, we support their unique, abundantly beautiful blossoming.
The pattern of attachment-driven children seeking to be liked by being alike, and sacrificing authenticity in the process, can end. Children can experience a secure attachment with their primary caregivers while also being secure in their developing, unique identity. In fact it’s a secure attachment that fosters a secure identity, while the reverse is also true.
Honouring children as they are in nourishing, heartfelt connection is how we love them into being.
The best way to help
children become
who they are meant to be
is to let them be
who they are now,
alive and free
as divine human beings,
resting weighted
in your tender arms,
and peacefully
in your loving heart.
* * *
Slowly spiralling this article to a close, I must add that while we look down at children because they are smaller in size, let us always look to them as our honourable equals from our divine sight. Let’s see them not as empty, but mysteriously full and alive, bursting at the seams with Joy — because they are!
Let’s receive in our hearts their sacred teachings of purity, innocence and goodness, which they emanate naturally and humbly by their very being. These immaculate qualities stir a subtle, heartfelt remembrance in us, a resonant knowing that we carry them as well, forever woven in our Holy Spirit as the intarnishable Truth of who we are.
We learned it was unsafe or wrong to be pure and innocent, to trust and celebrate our innate goodness. But thankfully we have little glowing teacher-mirrors who reflect to us daily who we truly are, who spark the aliveness of our Inner Star Child who wants to come out and play!
For these reasons and more, Jesus spoke highly of children, praising our little teachers: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3).
Indeed, in myriad ways, if only through the still sparkle in their eyes, little ones invite us home into our Holy Hearts, where purity, innocence and goodness shine brightest.
From the purity of divine sight they see us, in Truth, as they need you and I to see them.
* * *
Thank you for reading! You may enjoy my book, Let the Fire Burn: Nurturing the Creative Spirit of Children. Also, please check out my video below called Come Out and Play! ~ Embracing Life’s Infinite Playground.