Welcome to parenting with soul

When I was giving birth the second time, well into labour, I said to my husband, ‘I can’t do this!’

I’d reached the limits of my endurance: I couldn’t push any harder, deal with any more labour pains, control my breathing another second. He gently said, ‘But you are doing this!’ That was so profoundly irritating at the time, but so true.

As a mother, it never ceases to be true: I often feel stretched beyond my limits, at the edge of endurance, ready to give in to exhaustion or irritation.

Life doesn’t stand still and wait for us to catch up: somehow we get through each day, and we go on to another one. We are doing this.

Do you want the good news? Parenting with soul is really not that hard. In fact, you’re probably already doing some of it every day. Any time you breathe a quiet word to God over the dishes, take that deep breath you know you need, look at your child and see an angel looking back at you … each of those things represents a bit of the divine in your day. You are doing this.

From Parenting with Soul by Sally Collings (HarperCollins Australia, an April 2011 release)