Family Wakes Us Up

How do a teacher of yoga and buddhism and an ayurvedic practitioner prepare for parenting? How do they understand themselves as men, and fathers? How can love, separation, grief, acceptance, and falling in love again be spiritual practices? This is a serious book about family as the first site of our evolution. It's intimate, existentially honest and strangely funny. Michael Stone and Matthew Remski share thirty years of yoga practice and teaching experience between them. They've each traveled far and wide to study and practice their contemplative arts-living in campervans in the dead of winter, dusty monasteries in South India, frigid temples in Japan and ashrams in rural America. As they both became expectant fathers, Michael and Matthew began an exchange of deeply personal letters that explore the interweaving themes of their lives amidst teachings from Zen, anecdotes from the yoga mat, observations from meditation and Ayurvedic recipes for postpartum broth. How does yoga inform their kitchen, laundry room and their love? How will they find help and take responsibility within a culture of manhood struggling to redefine itself? How can they use presence to integrate their past? How will supporting their partners through pregnancy, labour, and birth enrich their commitment to a spirituality rooted in intimacy and interdependence? Praise for Family Wakes Us Up "This book is a true gift for fathers and fathers-to-be. The intimacy of Michael's and Matthew's writing is extraordinary, and their honesty will help you find your way as you embark upon the magic carpet ride of being a father." -- Jack Kornfield, founder of Spirit Rock and author of A Path with Heart, and Trudy Goodman, founder of Insight LA ____________ "'Isn't it amazing that amidst whatever we think about, the sky still holds us up.' Like the unequivocal love that conscious parenting, and friendships are held within, this line beautifully captured for me the insightful and intimate tone of this book. Deeply personal and yet quintessentially universal, Michael and Matthew invite us into the innermost chambers of their being, revealing how they have allowed their hearts to open, to close, to break, to heal. They both care deeply about the complex dynamics of relationships and the genuine aspiration to be loving fathers . . . a book for all fathers to be . . . and mothers too!" -Sarah Powers, author of Insight Yoga