Perfect Parents, Perfect Children – Officially launched!

Bob Jacob’s (‘Dr Bob’) book Perfect Parents, Perfect Children has been officially launched in both the Brisbane and Sunshine Coast. It was a privilege to speak at his book launch. There are very few people in the world that you feel immediately connected and at ease with. Bob is certainly one of these rare people to me.

Sure his probing ideas about humanity, the governance of control and discipline, of ‘normality’, have always kept me intellectually stimulated as a researcher and practitioner, but more importantly as a Mama, every time I speak with him, he makes me feel stronger as a parent. And what a relief this is!

When I flick to any page in this book I immediately feel myself fall away from the everyday formalities of being a parent, ‘I need to bath the kids…’, ‘What am I am preparing for dinner?…’, ‘Wash your hands’, ‘Wipe your nose….’ And I find that I drop back to my heart, where my children always are, waiting patiently for me to return, to enjoy them for who they are in this very moment.

I am reminded in this book about how, when we impose our own expectations on our children, they resist (and rightly so) our hopes that they become….doctors, humanitarians, nice people…. and in my case, healthy eaters, organic eaters, kind, calm, peaceful, clean, tidy. Instead, our children just want to be seen for the totality of their being and not the objects of our unfulfilled ‘projects’.

Dr Bob’s book reminds me that our children just wants to be enjoyed and related to for who they are at any particular moment. They want us to relate to them as equals  – not deficient, developing beings, needing to get somewhere, and eventually ‘arrive’ at adulthood where they will be complete.

In a world cluttered with parenting books which promise healthier children, happier children, more content, well-behaved, ‘tamed’, ‘disciplined’ children, not to mention better/easier/faster laundry, cleaning, and cooking, this book makes me sit more closely to children. Listen more intently. Wonder at them. And when I do this they almost always surprise us, delight us, and confound our expectations. There are very few books in the world that have this quality – to make us breathe a little deeper and feel a little stronger as a parent. When I make my parenting decisions from this place, I am a wise and wonderful parent. We all are, and this book reminds us of that.

My daughter Adiva has a very special relationship with Bob. When I told her we were going to his book launch she said to me, ‘You mean my friend Bob? The one who plays with kids and fixes big people who don’t understand us?’

And there I think  lies the task of being a parent – to wonder at our children, to learn about ourselves through our relationships with them, and at the same time, not to see them as ‘them’, but as ‘us’. We have felt what they feel, yearned for what they yearn for – and if we are honest with ourselves….we still do.

I love this book and I know other parents will too. AND, it’s a FREE book!  You can download it as an ebook by CLICKING HERE or even better (I like the smell and feel of a hard copy book) you can send Dr Bob an e-mail request for hard copy of his book : theparentingcentre@bigpond.com.

After reading the book, you can also make a small donation to help The Parenting Centre print more copies of the book for others to enjoy. But PLEASE DO NOT FEEL THAT YOU ARE EXPECTED TO MAKE A DONATION!  Donations will only be for the SOLE PURPOSE of printing more copies of the book.  See The Parenting Centre website for more details.

Enjoy the read!

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PICS: The Book!; Dr Bob and Adiva doing craft at the book launch; Jedda and Jase at the book launch.

Contemplating Spirulina and the floods…

[Photos of the flooding at the end of our street]

Whilst we did not have to evacuate our inner city sanctuary (flood waters reached the end of our street) we were cut off from other suburbs and services, and were without electricity for days. Sitting in our leafy green courtyard contemplating our low supplies of fresh food, Jase and I marveled at our fortune at having spirulina and vital greens (barley/wheat/chlorella) in our cupboard. We could all live for week…months on our supply (and avoid the frenetic panic buying in the supermarkets). As long as we had enough fresh food for our chicks (and spirulina) we were set! So let me tell you about this greeny-blue, slightly sweet, intense algae…

Japanese scientists look towards spirulina as the solution to the world’s hunger and health problem. NASA considers it a vital and compact space food for astronauts. The World Health Organisation has called it one of the greatest super foods on earth. And New Agers all over the world are rediscovering the wonders of spirulina, adding it to their diets, and for many living, just on the nutrients of this super-food alone.

From origin to content: 1 kg of good spirulina is the equivalent of 1,000 kg of assorted vegetables; 10 gm of spirulina contain 6.6 gm of protein (milk has 0.32 gm). It has no bad cholesterol, contains 18 of the 22 amino acids the body needs, and is the richest source of beta-carotene, an antioxidant which combats free radicals.

Other exciting things about spirilina…

Some studies indicate that benefits of spirulina inhibit and minimise the risk of cancer.

It is a wonderful tonic for our body and helps to strengthen our immune system in general.

The dark blue green colour shows Spirulina is rich in Phycocyanin, helping to build blood and healthy red and white blood cells.

It’s high in chlorophyll.

It’s high with GLA essential fatty acid.

It’s low in fat.

It’s low in calories.

It encourages intestinal flora balance.

It increases your energy levels and puts your body in a great position to be the best it can be, for as long as it can.

And Spirulina can also be added to your home made face and body masks, albeit it does look a little ‘hulkish’ on the body.

So while other people have been scrambling to gather groceries from an ever-dwindling shortage of fresh food supplies, I feel grateful for our spirulina and supergreens. Jase and I breath a sigh of relief  that even if we were cut off from services for weeks and  months we would probably come out of the floods in better health than before the waters were rising.

NOTE: Kids and Spirilina. Yes, our chicks eat spirulina. Adiva eats it straight from the jar sometimes when her body feels like she needs it (and then she’ll go for days without it as well). Sometimes we add it to her smoothie, and sometimes we put it in what she calls her ‘honey herbs medicine’ (a concoction of naturopathy herbs to boost her immune system if she is developing a cold or cough, added to a generous scoop of spirilina, InLiven (certified organic, fermented, probiotic), cinnamon, ginger  and mashed together with manuka honey).

We send people in country QLD affected by the floods our light and love. Sarah xox

‘…we hope that you too will join us on this journey of  endowing our children with the best possible start to life and the best possible future on this earth’ (Farah-Lee, KindtoKids)

I received an email today from Farah-Lee, owner and operator of KindtoKidz.

She writes:

‘Dr Lantz, I came across your book Chemical Free Kids in the local library when researching a university project I did on immunisation. I’ve always had a natural bent so I decided to borrow it. It was quite eye opening for me and educational as I didn’t even realise I myself have a chemical sensitivity. I always just thought I was sensitive to most things in general, like the smell of strong household cleaners, perfumes, etc. I never looked much into it – and then your book seemed to explain it all. I also never knew how to read ingredient labels and that was very helpful for me. I subsequently started feeling more confident when choosing organic care products for my kids and household and used some information in your book to test products that I know sell in my business’.

Farah-Lee decided to combine her drive for educating consumers about safe choices for their children with her desire to establish a family business that would make a difference in some way. And hence, KindtoKidz was born.

Check out KindtoKids. It’s always great to support local and ethical businesses, organised and operated by passionate, conscious mama’s!

And thankyou Farrah-Lee for your kind words! We look forward to working with you.

Sarah

[Photo of Farah-Lee and bubs from KindtoKids website]

—  “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song” Maya Angelou—

Like most years there have been both highs and lows, a ying and yang, and each year I write them down in the days preceding the New Year. And in writing them down I spend time in reflection, often repentance, and resolution. I assess and redress my actions and in doing so cultivate compassion, understanding and acceptance of myself and empathy for others, so that I might truly begin the new year with a clean, clear slate. Then, and only then, do I write down my needs, dreams and desires for the new year.

We do a similar ritual with the kids, except for many of them they draw pictures of what the year has been like for them and what they want to be/do/have in the New Year. This is an exciting ritual about abundance and manifestation. They ask me:

‘Can I have anything I want?’ ‘Can I ask for two things?’. ‘Does it always come true?’

Yes, yes, yes…. I answer.

This year I read them a quote by Abraham-Hicks:

“Say it to yourself, ‘I am a wonderful Being. There is nothing that I cannot achieve. The world addresses itself to me always in positive ways. Everything always works out magnificently for me. I live a charmed life. Things are supposed to and always do, go well for me. Seas part for me. I have the resources of the Universe at my disposal. I live in an environment where I am inspired to a new thought. And as soon as I give birth to it, things align in order to bring me the actualization or the manifestation of it. I am an extension of Source Energy. I am God in a physical body and I am good. And because I am good, good things come to me. And if I am sick it is temporary because it is natural that I be well. And if I am not abundant of things that are important to me, it is temporary because it is natural that I be abundant. And there is nothing that I am supposed to do, but all kinds of things that I want to do…’”

[Abraham-Hicks]

And with our papers in hand, we walk to the bonfire (which some of the little kids thought was a bombfire so they didn’t stand too close), and say a silent prayer of gratitude, and burn our reflections and manifestations in the fire, releasing them to the earth and to the winds.

I am constantly amazed at the joy of the kids when they do this ritual. For the younger kids, it’s an expansive exercise. For the older kids, I get a sense that they feel more in control of their lives. That their lives are expansive. That they have choice. That they can drop back into what they inherently already know in their hearts.

I don’t usually share my highs and lows, but this year is different:

The difficult times

I think back to those times I was on my hands and knees on the floor of the laundry scraping poo off cloth nappies; Jedda is eating blue chalk in the playroom; Buddy, our incontinent 20 year Dalmatian spreads a path or urine across the kitchen floor where Jedda is now crawling.  I remember wanting to cry, to get some release, but I don’t have time. Adiva wants breakfast. I sit and briefly think about all the other mama’s across the globe sitting on the floor of their laundries scraping poo off nappies and feeling low and depleted. I am not alone I tell myself and consciously reach out with my mind to all those other women across the globe. But it brings little reprieve today. In many times similar to this I would have had the need to create another, different, emotion…turn the situation around, and say to myself something like, ’What a privilege it is to be scraping poo off my baby’s nappy, it means my baby is healthy’, or ‘I am honoured by the organic hemp cloth nappy that support my baby’s bottom’ etc…etc. blaa blaa… But this time, no, I close my eyes and sit with the sadness of being alone and scraping poo off the nappies, and sob on the laundry floor.

The highs…

I watch Jase and Adiva from the kitchen window. They don’t know I am watching as they play on the trampoline. He has a leaf blower in his hand and is blowing it on his face, which contorts and warps in the same way as it does when a person parachutes out of a plane. Adiva squeals with laughter and delight. ‘More daddy, more…do it again Daddy, do it again!’, she shouts. And he does… again and again and again for the satisfaction of hearing the laughter of his little girl.

I am grateful for the health and vitality of my two blond beauties as they run around the house naked; to Jase for reducing his hours at work to spend time with our chicks and allow me to write/create/plan/rest/be; to our organic homebased business; The University of Queensland Women’s Post-Doctorate Research Fellowship and the Sydney University  Centre for the Studies of the United States; to raw food people everywhere; Non-violent communication (NVC); Northy Street Playgroup; and the numerous communities across Australia who have opened their hearts and minds to the information contained in the Chemical Free Kids seminars.

Happy New Year! Happy manifesting! It’s going to be a great one!