Daddy K and Mama A Take a Mindful Parenting Class

We attend a mindful parenting class yesterday that the instructor calls The Art of Inner Nesting. And I have to say it's one of the best things we've done to done to prepare for the coming of our child.

The main point of the entire day was to be mindful – to be aware and actively present in the moment. You should always reflect on your past and plan for your future – but always be mindful of the present and live in your presence.

We met some other very nice parents-to-be who all share the same goals of being attentive parents focused on the now. It's hard to do, even before the children arrive. For all you parents out there, you know that life is a frantic amusement park ride with new surprises around every fall and turn.

There were meditation exercises (active listening), and communication exercises, and parenting vow exercises, and breathing exercises, and yoga exercises, and labor exercises – and some very sweet emotional moments. At one point Amy and I were doing a breathing exercise, aligning our breath as one, holding hands on her belly, Baby B rolling gently inside.

A moment of radiant light and love that no negativity could touch. (Like when the Freeling Family's bond of love warded off the evil spirits in Poltergeist. Don't make fun.)

Some would say this was all very much liberal, new age Santa Cruz, and that's true. But coming from two people who never wanted children in the first place, and are now having their first (and maybe not last), we're going to be present at every moment and embrace the love.

Considering that's how we've always tried to live since we've been together, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch.

Basic elemental instinct to survive
Stirs the higher passions
Thrill to be alive

Alternating currents in a tidewater surge
Rational resistance to an unwise urge
(anything can happen)

From the point of conception
To the moment of Truth
At the point of surrender
To the burden of proof

From the point of ignition
To the final drive
The point of the journey is not to arrive
(anything can happen)

--Neil Peart