CONSCIOUS PARENTING
I knew I had to make a choice, and quickly. Either
I could quietly back down the mountain, or I could
stay and follow the wildcat. If I stayed, fear could
play no part in this. I chose to stay and release my
fear.
Quietly, slowly, I bent to pick up a stick. They say
that if a wild animal sees you waving a stick slowly above your head, it makes you appear larger
than it. It was my safety stick. The wildcat started
to walk away slowly. I kept pace, walking when he
did, and followed him for a few minutes. Then he
turned and went into a grassy meadow. I walked
to the edge of the meadow and waited. Suddenly,
the wildcat jumped into the air and pounced into
some tall grass. He stood, and turned his head. He
had a mouse in his mouth.
slowly lowered my back end, then slowly lowered
my front end, until I was in the same position. Our
eyes remained locked. We stayed put. After several minutes my legs begged me to stand up. Going
as slowly as I had before, I raised myself up in the
same way. When I was again standing, the wildcat
copied me, keeping the mouse in his mouth. Our
eyes were still locked.
Finally, I decided to speak to him. I said out loud,
“Hi. I am Janai. I am so grateful you have shared
this special experience for my birthday. Thank you
from my heart.” He seemed to be listening. “My
work is for the children in the world, including the
children of nature, like yours. Today I want to see
if the irises are blooming. I ask for safe passage to
the iris field.” When I finished the world “field,” he
looked away, turned slowly and walked up the side
of the mountain, with the mouse still hanging from
his mouth.
I was filled with ecstatic energy, a state of grace
and gratitude. My human potential had expanded
beyond what I could have imagined. It is fascinating to me to compare these two stories showing
how fear can freeze or free human potential, each
choice bringing about vastly different results. The
choice is always ours. And teaching children about
fear and how to work with it in order to have choices when it shows its face is a monumental gift to
them.
WAYS TO ASSIST CHILDREN IN UNDERSTANDING
FEAR’S GRIP
Then our eyes locked. We stood, motionless, for
a good three to four minutes. Then he started to
move in slow motion, lowering his back end to
the ground. He slowly lowered his chest and head,
keeping his eyes high enough to see over the tall
grass. The entire time, his eyes were locked on
mine. My inner voice told me to follow suit. In what
seemed to my leg muscles to take an eternity, I
59 | NEW CONSCIOUSNESS REVIEW
Fear is blocked energy. Feeling safe and secure is always a goal and fear threatens that reality for children. Teaching children not to feed fear but to own
them and go beyond its freezing grip is the focus. It
is also important to keep in mind that fear can be
a guide post in situations of potential danger. Children who are taught to understand fear come to realize many of their fears are unnecessary and can
be damaging....fear of being honest and getting in
trouble, being afraid to be who we really are, being
afraid to change or to speak up, being afraid to be
wrong, to say ‘no’.......and on and on.
Fear of the unknown is the ultimate fear. Demonstrate to a child how a sound outside the house at