The fifth aspect of mindful loving, and therefore mindful parenting, is Allowing. By this we mean allowing appropriate privacy and space, of course. But we also mean leaving physical, mental or emotional space to work through feelings, to problem solve or to create. And in all of these endeavors it is the Allowing of appropriate struggle - without unnecessary interference - that makes new growth and creativity possible. In this last facet of our series, we come full circle. M

The fourth of the five aspects of mindful loving is Affection. Relative to the other four aspects, Dave Richo's book doesn't go on very long in introducing this topic. The emphasis is simply on the explanation that we are talking about safe, non-exploitive physical contact when we talk about affection. But I've been surprised as I've mulled over this for a couple of weeks to find how large this topic has grown for me. On one hand, it's pretty easy to segue from the focus on A