Happy Birthday Kids!

After spending most of my twenties as a pre-monastic and Swami, fathering a child just did not seem to be in my future. Furthermore, I had burnt out all my parenting karma growing up in a large Italian Catholic family. Every time - and it was often - that the Bellos gathered, I was the social director for thirty or so children ranging from infants to cousins my own age. Being the oldest boy, I was deputed to be a priest and my grandmother Nanny, a strong woman who surprised me by her acceptance of my decision to don orange robes rather than a white collar.

Radha, on the other hand, was an only child. There was a large age gap between her mother and father, and he was sixty years old when she was born. It was his second family, and her step-sister and brother were old enough to be her aunt and uncle. After meeting at the IYI Newport Yoga Retreat in 1976, she reluctantly moved to Montreal and joined the community where I had been living since 1972.

In the early years of our marriage, Radha and I made the decision to devote our lives to service. We knew this commitment would make it difficult to offer a child our full attention, and for that reason we decided to not bring a child into the world. Circumstance, however, has gifted us with knowing some amazing young people in our spiritual family, and two of them celebrated a birthday last week.

Ana turned nineteen on January 8th. We have known her since she was six years old (her father has studied with us for nearly two decades), and this year has been her first away from home at college. She is majoring in the performing arts, and we remember fondly listening to her monologues and watching her school plays since elementary school. We miss her at our meditation days and Tuesday night Patanjali study group, but are excited to watch her as she continues to grow. She is like a daughter to us.

Ana... we've known her since she was 6 years old.

Crystal shares a birthday with Ana, and turned eighteen - the official transition point into adulthood. We initially got to know her in the role of substitute caregiver, whenever her father was unable to find a babysitter. Over the years she slowly warmed up to us and is now attending our Enlightening Relationship six month training. Radha and I are both impressed by her maturity and desire to learn relationship tools in order to navigate life more successfully.

Crystal... now "officially" an adult.

We left voice messages for both Ana and Crystal on their birthday, offering our best wishes and appreciation for how mature and conscious they are living their lives. We are blessed to have had so many children in our life over the years. Radha and I joke that we get to Be with them after their parents have done all the hard work - doing hatha yoga, meditating, and playing in the space. What a blessing.

Happy birthday Ana and Crystal- we love you both.