Garden Haiku

Book excerpt: In Garden Haiku: Raising Your Child with Ancient Wisdom, author Lily Wang gives parents spiritual guidelines for raising happy, respectful, and resourceful children. The simplicity and wisdom in these character-building principles have been extolled since ancient times but tend to get lost in today’s world. While Garden Haiku addresses parents and writes about young children, it is meant for everyone to enjoy. The themes and values are universal: we all grow from childhood to adulthood, and we are all our own best parents. We need to be nurturing and assuring people who believe in ourselves and support our dreams. Wang revives golden virtues with original poetic lucidity to bring Zen to parenting: Patience is to Have no expectations But greater acceptance Children can devil or angel be— Put your hands on their backs The touch of their wings Wang equates parents with gardeners whose sole purpose is to nurture tender buds into full bloom. While we have our children’s futures in our hands, they also have ours in theirs. A modern Zen classic, Garden Haiku is every caregiver’s poetic manual on the art of parenting. “Highly recommended!” —Midwest Book Review “Just right for parents.” —Kirkus Book Reviews “Distills magic into three-line poems celebrating life.” —ForeWord Magazine