So coming to a comfortable sitting position,
Letting the eyes close or the gaze lower,
Feeling the connection down through the feet into the ground,
And bringing awareness to the posture of the body as we sit here.
Just finding a sense of length in the legs,
The torso,
The neck,
Being aware of these sensations as well as the sensations of breathing,
Letting the breath flow in and flow out of the body and feeling that natural rhythm,
Perhaps in the nostrils,
The mouth,
The chest or the belly or somewhere in the body.
And then for this gratitude practice,
Letting an image of your child come up,
Maybe starting with one child and moving on and doing this practice with different children one by one,
Seeing if an image of one of your children can come to mind.
And as we hold this image of our child,
Dropping down the question a bit like a pebble dropping into a pond,
Seeing what arises naturally as we drop down this question,
What do I feel grateful for in my child,
In this child,
Letting that question drop down,
Not into the head but down through the body,
Like a pebble falling through a body of water as we drop a pebble into a pond,
As that pebble comes to rest at the bottom of the pond,
The silt at the bottom is naturally displaced,
So seeing if a natural reply comes to this question of what do I feel grateful for in this child,
Opening our minds and hearts to three things that we feel grateful for,
However small,
Without thinking too much,
Maybe just dropping down this question two or three times and seeing what arises each time,
Might be very small things like the way they smile or the light in their eyes,
Coming back to the feel of the breath moving through the body whenever we need to,
And then bringing our attention to ourselves,
Imagining ourselves,
Having a picture of ourselves in front of us,
In this role as a parent,
And dropping down this question in the same way like a pebble falling through a body of water,
Seeing what comes up,
What do I feel grateful for as myself as a parent,
Seeing if three things can arise here,
However small,
About ourselves in this role as a parent,
Allowing these answers to bubble up spontaneously without too much thinking,
Without too much rooting around,
And if nothing comes that's okay,
The idea is to just keep dropping down this question over and over,
Waiting for a response,
And when you're ready,
Listening to the sound of the bowl until it dissolves into silence to bring this gratitude practice to a close,
And you might like to note down this practice in your booklet if you're keeping a diary or a log,
Noting down what came up for you each time when you imagined your child and when you imagined yourself.
