Articles by Alessandra Dobrin Khalsa

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

Teaching My Child to Find Spirituality in Nature

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Teaching My Child to Find Spirituality in Nature
The past four years feel like a whirl of change with pregnancy, birth and learning how to be a mother. It has been a time of discovery as, little by little, I learn who this beautiful child is that with whom the Creator has graced me. Before Amrita was born, I would often reflect on what kind of mother I felt I naturally was and what kind of mother I would strive to be. Then, once Amrita was born, I was thrown into a storm of diapers and night feeding as I attempted to navigate my way through this new and uncharted land, bleary-eyed, yet elated.  Read more »

Should We Raise Our Child Vegetarian?

One of the first things you do when your child is born is feed them—put them to your breast—nature’s own perfect formula.  Read more »

Big Questions and Inner Truths

Now that my daughter Amrita is two, the focus of my parenting has shifted from questions on navigating our way through the daily routines of life, to more philosophical ones.  Read more »

Vaisakhi Craft: Make a Flag

One element of the celebration of Vaisakhi is a parade.  Read more »

The 120 Days of Children’s Souls

It was the summer of 1998 and I was lounging in the passenger seat of my friend's car. Spots of sunlight touched us as we made our way through the winding road of trees. I looked up at the bright green, waving leaves and was suddenly struck by the most vivid vision I had ever experienced. Smiling green eyes looked down at me from a round little face, framed by very straight strawberry blond hair.  Read more »

Closer to God: The First 40 Days After Birth

The first time you hold your precious little one, it is hard to imagine that one day this tiny being will be able to speak and share their thoughts with you. I would stare at Amrita for hours, wondering what she would come to care about and what she would be like. For about the first month of my daughter's life, she seemed to spend most of her time off in another realm.  Read more »

Celebrating Guru Nanak’s Birthday at Gurdwara

I don't believe in the Beatles. "I just believe in me." John Lennon had it right. Little did he know when he penned the lyrics to "God" in 1970 that he was echoing the very same sentiments that Guru Nanak, the founder and first Guru of the Sikh religion, professed nearly 500 years prior. "There is neither Hindu nor Muslim. So whose path shall I follow? God is neither Hindu nor Muslim, and the path which I follow is God's.  Read more »

Manifesting Your Own Reality

When I think of my daughter some day spreading her wings and heading off into the world on her own, I feel a mix of pangs of personal loss combined with an incredible excitement for the experiences that lay before her. Where will she go? Whom will she meet? What will she experience? Who will she become? I hope that my husband and I will have been able to instill her with a sense of confidence, trust and joy for herself and life, and to give her the tools my parents imparted on me, tools for navigating through life’s pleasures and challenges--trusting and learning along the way, and how to project for, and manifest one’s goals in life.  Read more »

Self Realization

I can remember as a small child thinking that every family was just like my own; I had no base of experience to think otherwise. As I grew I discovered what a rich and diverse world we live in. Every parent must look at their life and choose the experiences that they want to repeat with their children. What kind of home world does one want to create? What traditions and beliefs do they want to share and instill? For some, it will be something very close to their own upbringing, and for others it will be entirely different.  Read more »
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