The Present

How do I keep my spiritual practice alive while parenting little kids? That’s the question I asked recently of Krishna Das, singer of Hindu devotional chanting. He said, “You don’t”. He must have seen the look of shock and dismay on my face as those words echoed through my body and added, “you just stay in each present moment as it comes, and when you’re distracted or want to run away, you keep coming back to the present.” I could feel my cheeks getting hot and tears threatening to spill over. I wanted him to tell me a funny anecdote about some other family in India that made it work, or to encourage me to discuss with my partner a way to prioritize a daily practice for myself. Instead he told me to sit with the discomfort, with the urge to escape, with the messy, chaotic, emotional whirl of each parenting moment. That perhaps other practices like meditation or yoga could strengthen me for the work. But the work, he said, was already in front of me. Hari om.

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