Mother’s Day Special: Tender, Loving Care

Image: Lov­ing mother cour­tesy of The crazy Colombian

A para­dox of love:
The great­est mys­tery
of this world we live in.
How to be the best par­ent,
the best mother,
the best father,
the per­son your child deserves?

In bal­ance lies the answer;
give all your love,
uncon­di­tion­ally.
Pro­tect your child
from the evils of this world.
Uncage his spirit
and encour­age him
to explore our beau­ti­ful uni­verse
in all its glory.

Teach him the lessons he needs
to be happy,
well adjusted,
socially respon­si­ble,
safe,
suc­cess­ful,
at peace.

Let him make the mis­takes
that will be nec­es­sary
for him to truly realise
the mean­ing of those lessons,
for it is only through expe­ri­ence –
some­times painful,
some­times scary,
almost always uncom­fort­able,
that we learn the lessons
that truly mat­ter in this world.

Give him love;
Shower him with presents
of the heart;
Be Spar­tan with the presents
of this phys­i­cal world;
Always be there for him,
But don’t force your pres­ence,
your ideas,
your per­spec­tives and
points of view
upon him.

Lis­ten to what he has to say
and offer advice only
when he asks for it,
when he truly needs it,
or when he right­fully deserves it.

Talk with him,
not at him,
of the things he wants to
talk about.
Con­nect with him through words
about his world,
even if his world is too naïve,
too inno­cent,
too bor­ing
or too child­like.
For it is only through his eyes
that you can truly com­pre­hend
what your child desires,
craves,
fears,
needs help with.

Play with him,
learn about his favourite toys;
Spend qual­ity time
with him and all his friends;
real, or imag­i­nary,
it doesn’t really mat­ter.
Let your­self go
in the bliss that we all have
when we play
for play’s sake;
when we don’t look at games
as com­pe­ti­tions,
net­work­ing events,
ways to enhance
our social sta­tus,
or events to should be watched
from the com­fort of your couch.
Let your­self enjoy the moment
when your child plays with you
and shows you
how to expe­ri­ence games
as rare
and won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ties
to share a laugh;
give some fun;
live the moment
with some­one that you love;
enjoy the game
for what it truly is:
a moment of active joy,
with no respon­si­bil­i­ties;
all fun,
no harm.

The great­est mys­tery
we’ll never uncover:
How to be the best par­ent,
that your child deserves?

The answer is quite sim­ple,
yet impos­si­ble to act upon
every sin­gle day:
Give your­self uncon­di­tion­ally,
Spend all your love on him;
Set him free to learn,
and live,
and love,
dis­cov­er­ing his pas­sions,
find­ing his own heart,
his own path;
sup­port him through this jour­ney,
as a guide who knows some roads,
not a leader that knows them all.
Bal­ance your needs with his,
Your wis­dom with your fool­ish­ness;
And show him that you’ll always be there for him;
espe­cially when the hard­est proof
of love is demanded of you:
To let him go,
set him free,
send him on the road to
find and be him­self.
For it will be
in that sim­ple moment of sur­ren­der
that your love will flower
and help you find the peace,
the hap­pi­ness,
the self-fulfillment
you’ve been seek­ing all your life;

It will be in that sim­ple moment
that you will live,
for just a sec­ond
but will always be
for­ever in your heart,
the real­i­sa­tion you always
knew how to be the best par­ent,
the best mother,
the best father,
the per­son your child deserves,
Always has,
Always will.

For more poetry, visit the fol­low­ing links:

• Tomor­row — a poem inspired by Bradley Trevor Grieves book by the same name
• Reflec­tions of a Peace­ful War­rior — a poem inspired in a talk given by Dan Mill­man in Syd­ney (April ‘08)
• Lone­li­ness — poetry in the Zen tradition
• Sam­sara — another Zen poem that explains the con­cept of Sam­sara
• Que es poe­sia? — a lib­eral trans­la­tion into eng­lish of Gus­tavo Adolfo Becker’s famous poem
• Joy — An uplift­ing poem about the nature of happiness
• Unusual times — a poem reflect­ing on the nature of chang­ing and unusual times
• Queda Pro­hibido — a poem by Pablo Neruda, with trans­la­tion into English
• Play — A beau­ti­ful poem about grow­ing up

or you can visit The crazy Colombian’s new book Zen and the art of pho­to­graphic story-telling

Tagged as: fatherhood, Gift, Love, mother's day, motherhood, parenthood, Teaching