The Alchemical Child- unasked for parenting advice for those who love

Ask Dr. Anna K children have taught her a lot

I started my career in education many, many years ago teaching 7^th grade science. I loved this age as I could not only teach biology, but I could teach questions of life and get them to think about things. Children are not rigid at this age. They love to question, and they love to argue, and it is always good to have children question what knowledge that is taken for granted. For example, one of my favorite things was to have them question the existence of what they called “God.”

I am often asked if I believe in God and my response is always…it depends. Whose God do you want me to believe in? I am not religious, not even sure I am spiritual – sometimes I do not know what I believe in, but I do know I TRUST and what it is I trust – it is my own self and my own knowledge. I do not believe we are accidentally created. The odds are too great for that. Imagine the odds of even creating a one-cell organism by accident. It requires exactly the right temperature, exactly the right mix of chemicals, exactly, exactly, exactly…. The odds are huge. Let along having the entire solar system, the entire organism of what we call creation coming into being by accident. 

I remember asking my classes “if you came into a room and no one was there and everything was in place, neat and clean and tidy,” what would you think? You cannot see anyone, but everything looks great. Would you say this was an accident? Was this a random event? No – they would say – someone was there. And what if it kept being clean and neat and tidy, no matter what you did to mess it up? What if all of your needs were met, food, a bed to sleep on, and so forth? Would you say someone was there?  

I would now say we at least know there is an organizing principle at work. There is an organizing principle that keeps everything in order and maintained for maximum benefit of all life. I notice this principle does not place judgment. For example, it does not say I am sorry, you cannot sleep on this ground because I do not like the sex you are, the age you are, the color of your skin, etc. All of these judgments appear to be human. But that is another article. 

I realized there is another law at work – one which science claims to be valid… “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” What I give out, gives back with equal and opposite force. So, we know this law operates on the physical plane. We see it all the time. If I am driving a car and I crash, the damage is equal to the force with which I hit the object. But does it apply elsewhere? I have come to realize that if I am in an angry mood and give in to really angry feelings during interactions with others, then this is what I get back – a lot of anger and very little help. 

Given this, I prefer to think the organizing principle of the universe is based on Love – it is organized, and it provides us with the same vibration we provide to it. If I give off hatred, violence, resentment, then that is what I receive. It is no accident that throughout the world a guiding principle is “it is in giving that we receive.” 

But, interestingly enough to me, the one place we do not seem to think this applies is in the way we raise our children. Given this knowledge and if we truly understood this, would we in any way allow our children to be misunderstood, not loved, or abused? When we say our children are our future, do we understand, truly understand what this means. The way we raise our children shapes our future as a species. If I raise them in fear, in hatred, in resentment, then what kind of adult can I expect. Was Hitler an isolated genetic mutation or was he a product of his treatment by the adults who raised him ... .did Jeffrey Dahmer develop a taste for human flesh because he loved others and was loved????? Did Jesus the Christ, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and so many others become who they were from love or hate????  

A Child comes into the world in innocence. When we look into the innocence of their eyes, we see ourselves, not the Love the child holds for us. The unconditional nature of this love --- the transformational nature it holds. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.