Learning To Follow

[Eva Libre]

Inspirations

Learning To Follow

Today's Inspiration

When we approach children with the awareness that they can teach us, we automatically become more present ourselves.

As grown-ups, we often approach children with ideas about what we can teach them about this life to which they have so recently arrived. It's true that we have important information to convey, but children are here to teach us just as much as we are here to teach them. They are so new to the world and far less burdened with preconceived notions about the people, situations, and objects they encounter. They do not avoid people on the basis of appearance, nor do they regard shoes as having only one function. They can be fascinated for half an hour with a pot and a lid, and they are utterly unself-conscious in their emotional expressions. They live their lives fully immersed in the present moment, seeing everything with the open-mindedness born of unknowing. This enables them to inhabit a state of spontaneity, curiosity, and pure excitement about the world that we, as adults, have a hard time accessing. Yet almost every spiritual path calls us to rediscover this way of seeing. In this sense, children are truly our gurus.

When we approach children with the awareness that they are our teachers, we automatically become more present ourselves. We have to be more present when we follow, looking and listening, responding to their lead. We don't lapse so easily into the role of the director of activities, surrendering instead to having no agenda at all. As we allow our children to determine the flow of play, they pull us deeper into the mystery of the present moment. In this magical place, we become innocent again, not knowing what will happen next and remembering how to let go and flow.

Since we must also embody the role of loving guide to our children, they teach us how to transition gracefully from following to leading and back again. In doing so, we learn to dance with our children in the present moment, shifting and adjusting as we direct the flow from pretending to be kittens wearing shoes on our heads to making sure everyone is fed and bathed.

by Madisyn Taylor

[desmond dillon]

i have discovered that our children, which are the 'children of life longing for itself', are the clear light of our world.

i have to agree with Madisyn but it does go further. As a young newly married man i felt very reluctant towards the idea of having children. I did not feel capable of doing all that would be required for many many years. 25 years later, when the cycle was complete, i had to realise that what had happened throughout was that i had been taken care of by them..  how so.. 

first and foremost, from birth and onwards, they introduce us to love. because of that love we will automatically respond and thus become part of it.. had i not been fortunate enough to have been granted the kids my nose would not of been at the grindstone, focussed throughout because of the love i felt and feel more from them.

they kept me connected to their pure hearts because of the love i had for them. prepared to do whatever was required.. tell me where would i have wandered to if the clear light of love had not visited me in the form of offspring and so provided me with the chance of a clear highway direct to the heart of love.