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Growing Good Hearts: The Rooting Years

by Candace A. Croft, Ph.D.

399 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); illustrated; catalogue #04-2300; ISBN 1-4120-4492-8; US$30.50, C$35.00, EUR25.00, £17.50

Parenting guide for improved relationships.
Use this blend of anecdote and child development application to grow good hearts by improving parenting skills with family, friends, colleagues, and Self.

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About the Book      About the Author      Excerpts      Catalogue Information

About the Book

Regardless of age, we each live simultaneously as a child and a parent while at home, work, and play. Receiving divine instruction daily, each person remains forever a child in the universe. If you have children, if you have employees or colleagues, if you have friends and family, if you have a spouse or partner, if you aspire to align with Self, you are also a parent, nurturing growth.

According to the sacred contract, each of us is charged to nourish the heart of any child entrusted into our care, support every child's development, count the blessings each child brings, cutivate goodness and light, remain true to the divine plan, and facilitate lush growth.

Integrating expertise in child development, parenting, and spirituality, the author discusses parenting moments from infancy through the toddler years. Each moment is divided into three sections: an anecdote illustrating a teachable moment in a child's development, a discussion of the developmental concept involved, and an application of the life lesson at a higher level. In addition, prayers are interspersed throughout the book to provide wishes, guidance, and encouragement from the child at heart. A parenting mantra is repeated as a reminder to relax, breathe, and realize that teachable moments are a part of healthy development. Activities are provided to assist the reader's personal development.

Each child holds the seed of a parent. Within each parent is the heart of a child. May this book guide you to learn the lessons of child-heart and parent wisely, nurturing the spirit of those entrusted into your care according to the sacred contract.
A book from The Heart of Tabankhu

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About the Author

Candace A. Croft, Ph.D., CFLE holds a degree in psychology from Saint Olaf College, a Masters in Child Development & Family Relations from the University of Arizona, and a doctorate in Health & Human Devleopment from The Pennsylvania State University, and is a certified family life educator and aromatherapist. She has worked as a therapist and served in management roles with national health organizations and directing a wellness center. As a professor, she taught courses in lifespan development, transpersonal psychology, and integrative health. She has authored numerous articles and is the recipient of several awards and honors. An experienced teacher and speaker, she gives presentations and serves as a consultant to groups on integrative health, spirituality, and sacred environments. For more information, please access her complete biography at www.madisonwhoswho.com.

Other books by the author include Annalia's Simply Splendid Flight (From Another Side of Day), a self-help novel with study guide and The Tao of the Magician both available from Trafford Publishing. Living With Heart, a monthly column dedicated to purposeful living, may be accessed on www.tristatewoman.com.

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Excerpts

Life's Record - Family Constellation

"Mom, do I have a baby book? Where is it? Can see it?"
"Me, too, mom."
"Me, too."

Searching the closets and hope chests, Mom finally located the records in the attic and dusted them off. She handed her oldest an entire set of records, identified by volume. Pictures laid end-to-end would circle the globe. All firsts were recorded‹the times, dates, and location of first bowel movement (with description), first time smiled (at dad when he stuck the suction cup toy to his forehead), when she held up her head (December 1 on the living room rug and champagne was popped), rolled over (December 12 on the kitchen floor and spilled juice), projectile vomited (pureed carrots), sat up (in family room for five seconds before dog walked by and wagging tail knocked her over), received a bump on her noggin (fell from bed onto the dresser*s edge, size of a golf ball), crawled (chasing kitty*s tail across the family room, kitty escaped intact), burped (wasn*t it cute?, just like dad), laughed (at nothing, again takes after dad*s side of the family), walked (three steps from mom to dad, so advanced for her age), spoke ("ah-ya" translated into "ma-ma"), ad infinitum. Calligraphy headings and decorative borders added an artistic accent. The volumes held a record of everything‹sonogram, birth announcement, birth certificate, birth banner, every birthday card ever received, hair and fingernail clippings, every place the child*s name appeared in print from church plays to place cards to recitals to athletic events. Immortalized like a great Egyptian, her life record was ready for enshrinement in the Hall of Pharaohs.

The middle child*s baby book‹yes, only one volume‹began with good intentions, but Mom and Dad lost steam somewhere around year three when they realized their son*s development was normal, not gifted. From that point forward, his life*s record was a ragtag assortment of whatever was spared from the garbage. The youngest child had a baby book with a wild collection of odds and ends, including some long-lost bills stuffed in. Nothing was organized, stylized, or pasted down. Pages in the last half of the book had never been separated. The youngest demanded a birth certificate be produced to prove she was part of the family. Even though a notarized copy was eventually recovered from the office of county records, she clung to the belief that it was falsified and she had been switched at birth and would someday be reunited with her real family (wealthy, without other children, and equestrians).

Regardless of where we begin, each child creates a monument documenting her seasons in the garden.

Living The Lesson

Each heart in the garden represents a star in the universe. To grow as a good heart, every child must be true to her position in the family constellation. Locate your star in the divine constellation and connect with it. Your roots in the celestial canopy are a pure energy source. Empowerment comes from creating a record through daily living that aligns with your heavenly position.

What is in your record? Compile your life book as you would like the Master Gardener to see it. You can make it as simple or fancy as you please. Leave nothing out; editing the past is cheating. Include all the details like the first child you are, as every child is, in the garden everlasting. Once compiled, shift your perspective. Assess it from the eyes of another, including the Master Gardener. Viewed with different eyes, do your choices, feats, and deeds still appear stellar or have they dimmed? You cannot undo the past, but you can edit the future.

It is true what the legends say: Our lives‹every thought, word, emotion, and action‹are recorded in the universal ledger by our heavenly parents. Aren*t you excited to see it? Like it or not, you will.

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Catalogue Information

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