Once upon a time, I enrolled in a Buddhist contemplative education Masters program. I began to notice a loving shift within myself and I wished to share these mindful practices at home with my children. I began slowly offering moments to engage simply with the senses. On a walk we would sit and listen to the river. While flying a kite, we would watch the kite dance and feel the tug on the string. We would eat slowly. These were short but meaningful ways to bring our sensory experience to the present moment.

This practice deepened an awareness of my interconnection with the world around me.

During a visit to our local library, I was made aware that my children and I experience the privilege of being able to see images of people who look like and speak like us everyday. I realized that I could do more to bring diverse representation to our personal lives. I began to pick out and request books with diverse representation, authors, cultures, and languages.

Around the same time, I was introduced to sacred reading practices through the podcast, Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. I was touched by how the hosts guided and supported a regular practice of seeing the world through compassionate discussion in a secular setting.

From these two experiences, I was inspired to explore if we could treat our mindfulness practices as sacred ways to read these diverse books. From this experiment at home, I realized we were cultivating, exercising, and voicing our natural state of being which is inherently kind and good.

I have found that when our family pairs mindfulness with our story time, our innate goodness comes alive. With consistent practice, we are more likely to respond with compassion to the narrative. The practice with the book helps us to readily respond this way in our real lives with compassionate wisdom. We are becoming more willing to show this kindness to ourselves, and the world around us.