Beauty

This month's read aloud is THE GARDENER by Sarah Stewart and David Small - it tells the story of Lydia Grace who is sent to live with her Uncle Jim in the city during the Depression era, and over the course of a year, we see how her love of beauty sustains her and on the 4th July, it culminates in a touching transformation of everyone around her.

One of my favorite lines in this book is when Lydia Grace is writing home and says,

 "I've tried to remember everything you taught me about beauty."

Is that not beautiful?  It makes me wonder where and how I find beauty in the world....and how I can share that beauty with others.

Young Writers' Camp

Last week I did a presentation for a Young Writers' Camp on Inspiration. We talked a lot about what inspires them - what breathes life into them - and we talked a lot about what helps us to write.

My top writing tip - no surprise - is in the words of author, Gary Paulsen,

READ LIKE A WOLF EATS.

What a great description - we discussed how wolves devour food because their very lives depend upon it and so too with books, we need to read them as if our very lives depended upon it.  

Because, in a way, our lives do depend on stories/books.

Literature is indeed linked to life like letters in a word, like words in a story.  Literature connects us to one another, to our ancestors, our descendants, and to the world around us.

What a wonderful way to start the summer for these kids with a Writers' Camp, where they discover that good writing is not just about getting better grades, or going to good colleges, but it is also about living better and happier lives:

GOOD STORIES = GOOD LIVES

TEACHER ELIZABETH MALONEY AND HER YOUNG WRITERS!

Story Connections

This month's read aloud is A Story for Bear by Dennis Hasely, a tender tale about a bear who becomes mesmerized by the sound of a woman's voice as she reads stories of sailors, goddesses, and far-off lands. 

I love the title of this book -it reminds us how important it is to take time to find just the right story for someone at different times in their lives.  

Often parents will ask me for a story recommendation particularly suited to their own child's problems or concerns- a move, a death, a new sibling, or some squabble in the classroom. 

 Stories are great practice for life - they can give children a model for coping with loss or betrayal or anger, but they work best, if we feed them to our children BEFORE they actually have to experience the loss or the trauma.

A Story for Bear is a marvelous tribute to the joy and beauty of reading aloud, and it shows us too that stories connect us to one another - to the world around us - to our ancestors and to our descendants, and in this case, to a gentle bear deep in the woods!

"The storytellers go back and back to a clearing in the forest, where a great fire burns and the old shamans dance and sing, for our heritage of stories began in fire, magic, the spirit world.  And that is where it is held today."   

Doris Lessing, Nobel Lecture, 2007

"The End of Absence"

I just recently read this book, THE END OF ABSENCE, and like all excellent books, it left me with more questions than answers about this life and how to live it well. 

 I will not attempt to write a comprehensive review of it here, as there are many wonderful ones that have already been written  - such as this from The Washington Post.

  But the basic theme that Harris asks us to explore is that we are the last generation who will have known life before and after the digital revolution which has enabled us to be constantly connected to everyone from anywhere.  And so we have a unique opportunity to ponder what it is we have gained - and at what price.

The word ABSENCE has a somewhat negative connotation for most of us, I think, as it implies that something good is missing, that there is a lack, a hole, an emptiness.  But of course, the irony is that many "digital natives" (term Harris uses for this upcoming generation who have never known life before the internet) do see any time away from computer/phone/internet as a negative experience - they do perceive it as an absence, and yet all these devices that promise so called connectivity, often produce the exact opposite effect - they leave us DISCONNECTED to our deeper selves and to the world around us.  They prevent us from being PRESENT to others and to the miracle of life itself. 

Much of Harris's observations and insights relate to my passion for stories and promoting the art of reading aloud to our children at home and in school - reading aloud GOOD stories. The act of reading aloud gives us that time to PAUSE and PONDER, to BASK in a whiff of wonder or a bolt of beauty - and it offers our little ones an alternative to the digital world - it fosters this sense of wonder that our digital obsession is fast eroding.

Perhaps Hamlet's dilemma "TO BE OR NOT TO BE is more relevant now than ever, as more and more of us are choosing not "to be" by being swept up into this frantic frenzy of pseudo connectivity and multi-tasking - thus we suffer a certain kind of death - not of the flesh, but of the spirit.  

Quite a quandary, no?

Mothers

Mother Holle

From Cinderella to Snow White, from Mother Holle to  Hansel and Gretel, stepmothers in fairytales are notoriously wicked! 
But one of my daughter’s favorite books from her childhood was a story called The Good Stepmother by Marguerita Rudolph and illustrated by Darcy May.

It is a retelling of an old Russian folktale about a motherless Princess Elena who persuades her father to let her choose the woman that he marries.  She devises a contest for all the would-be Queens to make themselves a wedding gown, but the real test is whether or not they notice the tiny bandage that Elena wraps around her finger.  Whoever displays such sensitivity and compassion, she reasons, is sure to be a good and kind mother. 

An astute little princess!  For surely goodness is what we all seek in our lives and in our stories. 

“As is a tale, so is life, not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”  Seneca

This month is a time when we celebrate Mothers, but not just biological mothers - we know that MOTHER is not just a noun, it is also a verb and so anyone of us who brings to birth goodness in the world, or MOTHERS the goodness in a little one, is worthy of the title MOTHER.

Here’s to all those who MOTHER goodness in the world! 

Happy Mother’s Day!

Hoping in YOURSELF

As this month's theme is HOPE, I think it is worth re-visiting one of my own books -

 RAJ THE BOOKSTORE TIGER,

because it is about a very important aspect of HOPE and that is 

HOW TO HOPE IN YOURSELF

The idea for this story, stemmed in part, from this image below that I came across in a greeting card some years ago (except my cat saw himself as a tiger instead of a lion). 

T

 But the dollop of hope is the same - we all have an inner greatness, an inner tiger, or an inner lion, that cannot be seen with the naked eye.  Stories are in a way, mirrors, that allow children to see and believe in their own inner greatness.  For when they see story characters overcoming obstacles and taming their demons by summoning their inner courage and strength, then they have a model - a vision for how they too can overcome such hurdles in their own lives.

Happy HOPING!

HOW WE HOPE

HOW WE HOPE...

According to Jane Yolen, the two most important ingredients of a good children's book are - JOY and HOPE.  

This month's read aloud is Mole Music by David McPhail, one of my favorite HOPE filled stories ever.  I share it with people of all ages to mark special milestones in life, or to spread a dollop of hope when needed.

Hope is not always a feeling - just like love, but rather, often it is simply something we do until we can feel it.   Good children's stories  can provide beautiful models of hope for our little ones, letting them believe in their own goodness and grace and light - letting them see HOW to HOPE.

MOLE is the perfect embodiment of a tenacious soul who refuses to give up and simply 'keeps at it."

When we teach our children to hope, we are helping them to "keep at it" - that is keep at this business of LIFE - of living and loving with all our might - and who knows, just like MOLE, they too  may learn to "make music" that reaches into people's hearts and melts away the anger and the sadness!

Happy HOPING!

Land of Saints and Scholars 2

And now for....THE SCHOLARS!

Jonathan Swift -1667 -1745

Remember Gulliver's Travels?

W,B. Yeats 1865-1939

How I love his poems, Lake Isle of Innisfree and The Stolen Child!

Oscar Wilde - 1854-1900

He wrote my favorite giant story ever- The Selfish Giant.

C.S. Lewis - 1898-1963

Thank you, Mr. Lewis, for the wonder of Narnia and Aslan!

Seamus Heaney -1939-2013

The beloved Nobel Laureate whose last words were
"Noli Timere" (Latin for Do not be afraid!) - which is really what all great stories tell us - that GOOD will triumph - and so, we do not need to fear!

And we have St. Patrick to thank for all these learned and beloved Irish scholars!

Girl Scout Troop #2732

What a wonderful welcome Girl Scout Troop #2732 of Centennial gave me this week.

We read The Giant King and talked about our Writers' Roots - what they are and how to feed them.

We talked about my two "Muses," who are....

My two Goldens, of course - Isla and Fergus

These clever girls even knew who the nine Greek Muses were!

They asked me, "Is Nessie real?"

  

Yes, or so all good Scots will tell you!  So impressed that these clever girls knew where Nessie lived - in Loch Ness of course.

We talked about how "reading aloud can cure pretty much everything from warts to global warming," as Mem Fox tells us, because reading aloud GOOD stories feeds our hearts, making them bigger and better and bolder!

We talked about the importance of learning poems "by heart."  I was "heartened" to see that all these girl scouts were reciting all kinds of little chants and ditties before their meeting began - they already know the value of LEARNING BY HEART!

Gorgeous Gaggle of Girls

Thank you Girl Scout Troop #2732
"Burn Bright!"

Land of Saints and Scholars

As those of you who read this month's read aloud, St. Patrick and the Peddler, found out, Ireland is also known as "The Land of Saints and Scholars."

Here's why ...

St. Brigid - Patron saint of Ireland, poets, babies, midwives, and blacksmiths - Feast Day  - February 1st

St. Brendan - Patron Saint of boatmen, sailors, travelers, and whales - Feast Day - May 16

St. Ita - Teacher of St. Brendan - Feast Day - January 15

St. Kevin - Patron Saint of Blackbirds - Feast day - June 3rd

St. Patrick's Day

A few years back I happened to be making a school visit on St. Patrick's Day, and was delighted to see all the children dressed up in my favorite color - GREEN.
But I was somewhat dismayed when I asked them "Who can tell me who St. Patrick was?"  One little fellow boldly proclaimed, "I think he was a LEPRECHAUN."

Ah well, no doubt St. Patrick, having lived with the Irish for most of his life, has enough of a sense of humor to be laughing at that line from his heavenly home!

 So, why do I love St. Patrick?

Let me count the ways....


1.  He was born in Scotland -as I was. 

2.  He converted the Celtic people to Christianity but never shunned their love of nature and fairies.  (Indeed, it was easy for the Irish to embrace Christianity, because they already believed in other worlds, like the fairy kingdom, and were quite comfortable with the idea that, often what we cannot see is more real than what we can.)

3. He gave us the first Celtic cross - the ancient Celts already believed in the sacredness of the circle - stories were told in a circle, the sun and moon were circles, and so when Patrick converted them to Christianity, he simply placed the cross 
CELTIC CROSS.

 4.  He knew what it was like to be homesick for your native land (as I am, sometimes.)  As a young boy, Patrick was captured from his native Scotland, and taken to Ireland as a slave, and for many years, he pined for his own country and his own people.

5. He was a lover of nature and had a tremendous reverence for the earth and all God's creatures...as all the Irish do.


6.  And...he was a....STORYTELLER!



One of my favorite children's  books about St. Patrick and this month's read aloud on my storytelling site -

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

How Love sees

When I make school visits, children often want to know about Scotland, the country where I grew up, and also about Ireland, where I spent so many childhood summers.

I like to tell them that one of the great gifts of my Celtic background is that I grew up knowing that what cannot be seen is often times more real, more important than that which can be seen with the eyes.

The Celtic people have a tremendous reverence for nature, for mystery, for the sacredness that surrounds us, if only we can see with the eyes of LOVE.

THE LITTLE PRINCE

LOVE IN ACTION

The theme of this month's read aloud is LOVE - but as I have said before, LOVE, does not mean the sappy soppy stuff of Hollywood - it is not a feeling - it is something we DO.

Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch is a delightful example of LOVE in action - of ordinary people doing tender little acts of love that turn a lonely old man into a jolly soul filled with a joe de vivre!




As Mother Teresa maintains, we need to be mindful of those in our world who are not dying from lack of food, but rather from lack of love......





Good question for me to ponder.....

What little acts of love can I do for someone today?

Cleverness

This month's read aloud is Mabela the Clever - a lovely African folktale featuring a feisty clever mouse who outwits the crafty cat by following her father's advice.

As I mentioned before, we can learn much from observing other cultures, whether through their folktales, or by actually visiting the country.  

On our recent trip to India, we had to take a three hour road trip, and it did not look to me as if all five of us, plus our American sized luggage were going to fit in that one car.

But of course, I had not taken into account the basic "cleverness" of our Indian driver who knew exactly how to solve such a dilemma......

WHAT ELSE IS THE ROOF FOR?  LOADING YOUR LUGGAGE, OF COURSE

New Year Resolutions

I have to admit that I am not a big fan of making New Year resolutions - maybe because I often find myself mired in midwinter gloom at this time of year, battling those grim gremlins that taunt me with last year's shortcomings and failings.  Making some sort of "resolution"  on top of all this angst just seems too daunting!

But this year, I had just returned from a trip to India where my daughter has lived and worked for four years, and some wise words from a lovely young Indian girl gave me much to pause and ponder at the brink of this New Year.

For part of our trip, we went on a house boat on the back waters of Kerala. 

View from our houseboat on waters of Kerala

This was our little "day" boat that took us on some local sightseeing trips

In the evenings one of the crew, a lovely young Indian girl, would take us ashore and give us a taste of local life there - she even showed us her lodgings where she stayed at nights while the boat was moored - a modest, but pristine room with bunk beds! There, adorning her wall, was a big blue ribbon and a certificate for best employee of the month.  And it didn't take us long to figure out that such an award was more than warranted - it wasn't just her delightful demeanor and sweet spirit, but it was her burning desire to shine at whatever she did.  Every evening as she shepherded us back to our rooms on the boat, she would smile and ask us ever so earnestly, "What can I do better?"

Hmmm, what a question to ponder!

our lovely Indian girl took us to see a local Hind festival in nearby village

This month's read aloud, Mabela the Clever, shows us that tales from other lands can deepen our perspective about the world around us, and help us see things in a different way.  And so, these wise words from a lovely young girl in a far away land, have helped me to see in a new way.

  Maybe if I can take her questions, What can I do better?" as my daily mantra, then that would be the best New Year resolution ever.  
I love how it ties into those words of Socrates, "the unexamined life is not worth living." 

 So, as I take time to "examine" my day, I want to focus on what I can do better - in all areas of my life.  And as I ponder that question, I link myself to this lovely Indian girl - my faraway friend from another land who has indeed taught me much about "cleverness."