The Role of Parent

I got a lot from participating in the Life Cycle Living workshop. By reflecting upon my current stage in life and my role as a parent, I realized that I needed to go back and do some inner work to deal with earlier stages in life, stages during which my natural development as a human being had been blocked. For instance, while growing up in Brazil and when I was just 11 years old, I had to take over a parenting role for my younger brother, and so I lost out on fully embracing my childhood at that time. Paradoxically, even though I took this ‘mature’ role as a child, I realized that in some way I had retained a degree of immaturity.

I have since worked on this, including taking an Emotional Wisdom workshop facilitated by Prema Sheerin, one of the Sacred Fire Community Lifeways providers. This is allowing me to be more fully present as a father for my children and as a man for my community. I am also hoping that we will get enough interest to start regular Men’s Fires around our hearth, just as the women are gathering around the Fire every month.

— Eduardo da Silva
Greensboro, North Carolina
March 13, 2018