Birds Singing & Cat Stroking
Updated: Sep 5
This morning, I came into the livingroom and my youngest child Tyler (nearly ten now) sat at the table, munching on his muesli with one hand and stroking the cat who was lying beside him with the other. Of course, by the time I had taken out my phone and got the camera app open, Taani had already jumped off the table and the cuter-than-the-world's-best-cupcake picture was never taken. Sigh!
Instead, I sat down beside my Mini Mouse, as I like to call him, and stroked his hair, telling him he was also cute all by herself. After we'd exchanged the usual good morning "I love you's" and kisses, Tyler had a couple more spoonfuls before he suddenly looked outside the window to the garden and said dreamily, "I love waking up in the Eifel (mountains in Western Germany, meaning in the house we often spend a week at in the summer and about which I wrote my book A Magical Family Holiday) because the birds sing so beautifully there. Here, the birds sing beautifully, too. But there are not as many. In the Eifel, there are lots of birds and I just love it when they all sing."
Knowing a great many children who wake up wanting iPhones and designer clothes instead, who scream and rant at their mothers at every opportunity they get, I must stress how vastly blessed I am to have such a child, indeed three children, who appreciate nature and value positive experiences more than material things. It's not that they don't like nice clothes and electronic devices. They do as any other child would. But it's not the beginning and the end of the world. And when they want something, they ask and don't demand. Which is a much better way of uttering a need or wish because being asked nicely makes you want to provide it all the more for them.
Tyler is a quiet, sometimes introverted personality who loves animals and older adults the most. But he can just as well play with his classmates and set boundaries when he feels someone is overstepping the mark. He loves to hear funny stories from his big brother's life and giggles with delight at my humorous tales. It's great fun to have him as a child.
I also love to hear those anecdotes, funny, astonishing, scary with a happy ending, or whatever, from other parents. I am a collector of children's stories in my head. People tend to tell me things. I listen and I find it deeply enriching, as well as often entertaining. Children are fun, smart, wise, crazy, daring, the list goes on. So if you'd ever like to share a story of your own or someone else's child, feel free. I'll read and I'll listen and I'll love it!
In the section on "Beautiful Souls" in my poetry book My Spirit Song: A Spiritual Evolution in Poetic Expression I have published some poems I had written for my children, and one for my stepson who has also grown into a very special young man with a big heart and keen intelligence.
Children can be our greatest teachers and our greatest challengers. Tyler made me promise last year that one of my books I had decided to write in 2016 would be a children's book. It was important to him that she would be able to tell people that his mother had also written a children's book amongst all the adult ones. And it was him who not only inspired this book, How Picasso Makes You A Genius: Conscious Creations for Children in content but also in style.
Out of my three children, Tyler taught me the most clearly, how much better children learn when they have fun and enjoy themselves. As soon as I get him to giggle and laugh, I know, he will never forget. And thus, I wrote this children's book with a great deal of humour, exactly the kind Tyler loves.
I've asked him ever since if he would like for me to translate it into German if that was important for him to have it in his own language. His answer was, "Don't worry. I will have bilingual English classes at the secondary school after the summer then I can read it myself soon enough without you translating anything. I'm a fast learner and it's important to be able to speak English and read it, too." (Me dropping the mic at this point. Need I say more?)
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