ONE IMPORTANT THING ABOUT "THE SPIRITUAL CHILD," THE BOOK BY LISA MILLER, PH.D

This happened to me Thursday, July 23. It's something important I want you to know about.

In the mid-morning I went to a clinic at Oregon Health and Science University Hospital. A specialized nurse completed her test and had a minute or two left in her busy schedule. I've been a patient there on monthly recall for 18 months. I know the provider and she knows me.

She asked, “Have you been reading anything special lately?”

The question came out of the blue. I wasn't prepared for it. Usually she's asking about diet and physical activity and so on.

Amazed, I answered, “Yes! This!” I dug into my briefcase and brought out the book, “The Spiritual Child.”

I related the author’s academic credibility in psychology and in child development in particular. I recapped her basic message: that we're biologically wired for spirituality, and that a connection with spirituality builds stronger lives for youth.

The specialized nurse said, “That message is exactly what I’m looking for! We need to get that message out!”

The response was immediate. Forceful. Excited. She said something like, “If we get too much screen time, it affects the way our dendrites develop. Spiritual connectedness would probably offset the effect of screen time.” That was her area of concern.

Dendrites appear near the ends of the branches in this wonderful image of a nerve cell. [Placed in the public domain by the photographer; accessed at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Complete_neuron_cell_diagram_en.svg]

I left my appointment at OHSU and went on my way thinking, “If a health professional I trust is that excited about ’The Spiritual Child,’ I’m fully okay about being excited by the book as well. In fact, now I'm more sure that it's important."

Back in front of my own screen at home, I looked up “dendrite.” Sure enough, the dendrite is plastic or changeable, and is affected by environmental conditions. I've taken enough biology to realize that screen time qualifies as an environmental condition.

Enough screen time for this post! If you haven't read the first post on "The Spiritual Child," continue reading just below. And I’ll be back with more things to know about  “The Spiritual Child” next Saturday. Please return weekly. Thanks for reading.