Each of us are given this one life. Our soul is eternal, but I only have this one life as Leta Hamilton. What is it for? What is my life for? I think I have figured it out.

We are here as offerings. My life is an offering. What can I offer the world? What can I offer my children? What can I offer my husband. I believe in common humanity. I believe that we have more in common than differences. When we offer kindness, we are honoring the common bonds that make every human on this planet a brother and sister.

My children offer me their authenticity. They show me what it is like to just BE. They are not worried about appearances and they are not woried about other people’s opinions. They offer me their authentic joy and their authentic rage.

In a room full of presidents, statesmen, kings and movie stars, my children would not care two iotas. They would prance around the room playing power rangers while I chased after them embarrassed and pleading with them to behave. My baby would toddle around giggling and grabbing whichever pantleg happened to be nearest to his reach at any given moment.

This is why we love children so – because they don’t care who we are or, rather, what we pretend to be. I remember growing up with my father as the Navy Chaplain. I thought it was so funny when people said “Yes, sir” and “No, sir.” To me, he was just my dad. I certainly didn’t treat him with the deference of those in his office. I loved him because he was my dad – not because he was an officer in the United States military.

And so, to the world, I can offer as an adult this authenticity. I can offer an open heart and a willing ear. I can offer a smile without any expectation of return. The truest offerings are given simply because of our common humanity and not because we want or expect anything in return.

Today we were taking pictures for my new website. Oliver was not cooperating, so I bribed him with candy. “Oliver, lie down here in the grass with your hands behind your head for 5 minutes while this lady takes pictures and I’ll give you candy.” He immediately complied. This was a trade and a bribe, but not true giving. I needed something from him. I had an expectation with which I wanted him to comply, so I made a proposition that I thought he would find beneficial. He did. I manipulated him for some “natural” poses. Hah! The irony.

Every morning when Oliver wakes up he will get out of bed and come to the top of the stairs. If I am on the couch reading, he will come over to me and sit with me awhile. If I am down in the office, he will call until I come. He wants me to hold him first thing in the morning. He doesn’t want to come down and find me in the office. He wants me to carry him, to hold him.

This can be frustrating. Yet, writing about it now, I realize its sweetness and its authenticity. He’s 3. He’s just woken up. All he wants is the warmth of him mom’s arms. Can I give him this? Can I offer him this?

• Spent a girlie weekend at a beach cabin in the Puget Sound. My boobs were like melons by the end of it. Baby on breast immediately when home #
• I feel like I'm back at school. Kids are with babysitter and I have spent the last hour doing research at the library. It's kind of fun. #
• Quick poll: Who had the craziest thing happen to them today? #
• Join me on http://www.toginet.com/shows/livingthedreammoms Thursday from 10am est to 11am – subject Sibling Rivalry #
• "The Way of the Toddler Hour" starts 5/3. Email thewayofthetoddler@gmail.com for marketing package. Int'l listenership. Fab startup ad ops. #
• Early risin' – radio interview at 7:30am. #

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I’m off to New York city tomorrow. I’m going to the National Publicity Summit where I will be meeting TV show producers, journalists, agents and publishers. It is a heady experience and “keeping it real” is my main focus at the moment. I will be stepping into a room full of egos – well, that’s the basic assumption when you are meeting “media types.” It could be competely untrue. I just don’t know ’til I get there. I have been contemplating the whole beastly nature of the ego today and have it figured out. Of course, if it weren’t for my children, I wouldn’t have my metaphor.

The ego is like a child. It doesn’t have a clue. As a parent, we love, guide and instruct our children to appreciate that there are more people in this world than just them. We teach our children how to consider other children’s feelings on the playground and in the classroom. We show them how to work within society as a whole. No man is, as they say, an island.

Just as our children need to be taught and trained, so does the ego. The ego is that impersonal energy that equates life with the body. And so its main objective is to keep that body alive. However, it is this thinking that keeps us trapped in the illusion of seperateness. The ego does not realize that supporting ALL life is supporting its life. It is included in all life.

What does a child need most of all? Love, of course. When I child is loved and nurtured, it grows up to be loving and nurturing. When training and guidance is administered within the energy of unconditional love, the child will thrive. A friend told me the other day about an NPR news report she listened to that discussed a recent study where the researchers concluded that children can accept almost any rule if there is a moral basis behind it. They instinctively know that our common humanity is something to be supported. However, when rules start to interfere with their personal identity, this is when they rebel. So, for instance, when they are forced to where clothes they hate, are told who they can have as friends and who they cannot have as friends, and so on, this is interfering with their internal understanding of who they are as a person in their own right on this planet. I totally get that and it explains a lot about my childhood.

Our ego is no different. It needs to be guided into maturity. It needs to be loved into maturity. We all know that children who grow up without love, especially in those critical first few years, grow up to be psychopaths. It’s exactly the same with our egos. The ego is a child. Our Spirit is the responsible adult, who knows what is really going on and how the world works. We get it backwards, though. We let our childish egos rule our lives. Do we let our children rule our lives? I guess it depends on which parent you are talking about. Ultimately, those adults who are beholden to their child’s every whim are letting their child rule the roost.

Is this where helicopter parenting and activity craziness is missing the point? Are we letting our children drive our lives? My inner world, the inner state of my being, is always first and foremost in my list of priorities. If I am not in balance, then everyone gets a taste of Mommy Monster. I am my first priority. I still get out of whack – A LOT! I’m human. I have 1, 3 and 5 year old boys, 2 of which want to ninja fight pretty much 24 hours a day, one of which tries to ninja fight with his one year old baby brother. My house is a mess pretty much ALWAYS! The car is another story competely. My life is full. I’m trying to start a business, a radio show, sell a million books,  become a keynote speaker – or any speaker at all – network, market, promote, do laundry, cook dinner, take a shower…But, the point is, I catch myself when I’m out of whack and I unwhack myself. I put myself first. This isn’t selfish. It’s common sense.

All my Self-prioritizing means that I know who I am and I know who I am not. This allows me to know when it’s me reacting to a situation or when it’s my ego rearing its unruly head. Then I can deal with my childish ego and tell it that I love it, but that’s not how the world works. We do not ensure our survival by ensuring the survival of just one of us. We ensure our survival by supporting the survival of everyone. And that is what common humanity is all about.

The ego is like a child. It needs to be loved, guided and taught. It’s up to us to make sure Spirit is in charge. We are not these bodies. These bodies are houses for our souls. Too many of us get it the wrong way around.

• Early risin' – radio interview at 7:30am. #

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• Join me on http://www.toginet.com/shows/livingthedreammoms Thursday from 10am est to 11am – subject Sibling Rivalry #
• "The Way of the Toddler Hour" starts 5/3. Email thewayofthetoddler@gmail.com for marketing package. Int'l listenership. Fab startup ad ops. #

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Yesterday was an interesting day. I had a call from Sanjay Burman of Burman Books offering to publish my book’s second edition. It is a tempting offer. However, not one that comes without a price tag. As a new author, he wants me to personally buy the first 2,000 copies. This is fine, but it is also what I have already done with the first edition. This does differ from completely self-publishing in that they help with marketing and promotion, but my family has already invested pretty much everything we have to get me where I am today. The only reason Sanjay Burman knew to call me at all was because I have read one of his books and sent him a copy of mine.

Long story short, it was an agonizing day of decision making. Well, if you are looking at it from the point of view of my husband, there was no decision to make. We simply do not have the funds at this time to bankroll another 2,000 copies. I, on the other hand, am a big believer in “that’s what credit cards are for.”

In the end, I had to say that it was not an offer I could accept at this time. I went to bed last night somewhat on the disappointed side. Burman Books has published Joe Vitale, Bob Proctor and Marie Diamond. This is company in which I want to be associated.

Then I had this amazingly vivid dream. Suffice it to say I woke up knowing I had received a message from “the other side” telling me it was ok. More opportunities are coming around the corner that will not require such a substantial financial commitment. I spent my morning pondering and journaling about this dream.

In the midst of these ruminations, my baby was crawling about my lap, trying to reach the necklaces I have hung on my bedroom wall. He was happily playing, grabbing, pulling, and gernally doing his normal baby thing. My baby didn’t have a clue what was going on in my head. He wasn’t worried about whether or not my book ever made it past the first edition. He honestly doesn’t care. Cue: ah-ha moment.

The important thing in life is substance.

What is substance? Substance and essence are very closely related, although not exactly the same thing. Substance is that stuff from which our experience manifests. Essence is what is at the core of us. Substance is the worry or fear over whether or not I’ll ever go anywhere with this book. Substance is also the belief and trust that I will.

My essence is joy. Of that, I am sure. With joy at the very core of me, I know that I will always have the inner wherewithall to manifest out of the substance of belief and trust. I simply do the inner work that is necessary until I can return to my core. If I am out of alignment with joy in my outer world, it is because I am attaching myself to energies that are out of alignment with my inner core of joy, and I do what is necessary to rebalance the two. I have not always realized in so many words that this is what I do, but this is what I do and what I have always done.

Whatever your essence is in this lifetime is the substance to which you will attach your energy and the experience which you will manifest. If your essence is sadness, you will attach your energy to substances aligned with sadness and you will create more opportunities to be sad in your life. You can change your essence in this life, no doubt about it, but most people do not because a tremendous amount of self-honesty is required. Not everybody is ready for that yet along their individual spiritual path.

My baby, however, at this stage of the game, attaches himself to my energy and to whatever substance my energy is attaching itself. He doesn’t know any different. He is still a symbiot. If I am in a dark place and emitting sadness, fear, worry or any other form of negativity, this is also the substance to which my baby is attaching himself. If I stay there for long, this is what he will learn, what he will know, what he will be. To whatever substance I attach my energy before he develops his conscious mind, I will be bringing my baby along with me.

This all hit me this morning as we were sitting on my chair. He doesn’t care about the book, the contract or whether or not I sign it. These things are not the point. The point in life is WHAT YOU DO WITH ALL THIS “STUFF” THAT HAPPENS! For my baby’s sake and for my own, it serves the highest good to get out of worry, fear and anxiety as quickly as possible. These are not the places I want to spend my days. I better serve myself, my children and humanity by doing the work necessary to realign myself with peace. This does not always happen instantaneously. Sometimes it takes a day of feeling completely discombobulated, a restless night, a crazy dream and a morning of journaling before I finally get over it and am able to move on.

I know that my baby’s smile and drooly kiss is telling me I am on the right track.

• I feel like I'm back at school. Kids are with babysitter and I have spent the last hour doing research at the library. It's kind of fun. #

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• Spent a girlie weekend at a beach cabin in the Puget Sound. My boobs were like melons by the end of it. Baby on breast immediately when home #

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• Will by hosting "The Way of the Toddler Hour" on I'm Thankful Network from 5/3. Check out show topcis: http://www.imthankful.com/blog/?p=508 #
• Currently reading Miracles, Messages and Metaphors: Unlocking the Wisdom of the Bible by Norm Carroll. Love it. #
• Just sent husband off with kids for ice cream way too late on a school night. This is what happens when you get home late from work! #
• one hand typing. sleeping baby in arms. a late night workin' mama. Can anybody relate? #
• still up – baby on couch behind me. Still a late workin' mama… #
• Poll to moms: What are some mommy myths that most moms buy into and later regret? #

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• Poll to moms: What are some mommy myths that most moms buy into and later regret? #

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