Only a child can make you feel so bumbling-clumsy in your emotions. The thing is, in the last few years, my own compassion has telescoped a little bit: zoomed in on my family, my kids — my barfing, heartbroken, or bee-stung kids. To be the person I want to be — the person I want my children to look up to — I'll need to broaden its scope again. I'll need to feel for all kids, all people. And maybe even bugs. Perhaps this shouldn't surprise me by now: To be the person I want to be, I'll actually have to become more like my children.

Catherine Newman wrestled with mindful parenting in the last issue of Wondertime. In this regular column, she'll take a deep breath and invite us into her not-always-Zen-like home.