The Twelve Blessings (and One in Disguise) of Childhood

The Fourth Blessing: Riches
By Amber Greene, Mama Moontime

Here is part 4 of a 13 part series, where we will delve into the delightful kingdom of childhood. Each month, we will receive a gift from the Wise Women who so blessed the young girl Briar Rose. Some of you may be more familiar with her common name, Sleeping Beauty. Enjoy!

The veins of gold run deep in a young child. Snaking their way throughout the heart and soul of a child, each boy and girl must learn to balance caring for their precious resource and knowing when to shout ‘Eureka’!

Their riches are not vain piles of inanimate resources such as cash or silver coins, a dowry box of linen or a milking cow. Their riches cannot be measured in pounds or kilograms, by their shiny glean or date stamp, or by the colour of their robes. Their riches are veiled, hidden behind youthful eyes, deep in the bowels of the spirit.

Youthful exuberance is one such richness and glory, a commodity that many an aging grandparent would trade the world for. A young child relishes the ability to speak their own truth, to embrace growth and change, and to be immersed in a world of total choice. It is a gift that can never be regained. Their wealth also lies in having a clean slate, where each choice leads them on a new adventure and toward a new direction, with limited or no baggage at all. Oh, for the freedom of light “life-travel”!

A young child glows gold with their wonder at the world they will one day inherit. They see no limit to their potential, and seek to become everything. One day a ballerina, the next a truck driver, or teacher, artist or singer, zoo-keeper or sailor. They seek the pearl inside the oyster, trusting there will be a pearl inside every shell. Yet should that belief be quashed, they quickly shed disappointment because they also find beauty in a grain of sand. Their most valuable wealth though, resides behind the eyes, veiled and cloaked in the finest of silk. This richness is individual, quirky and unmeasurable. It is the soul of the child, the rare gifts that converge in this unusual matrix to create a one-of-a-kind being, NEVER seen before or to be repeated again.

There is a pot of gold that sits at the bottom of the child’s own rainbow. No matter how hard we try to secure the rights to that chest, their pot remains slightly out of reach for every other person in the world. We can come close, we might even catch glimpses, but the breadth and depth of the trove can’t ever be fully grasped. (Nor, by rights, can anyone steal or squander ours!) Only the child may sit and count coins, share the gold among family and friends, or bury it deep behind a tree. Their soul’s deepest riches are a treasure that no one else can keep but may only borrow if offered.

The Twelve Blessings (and One in Disguise) of Childhood

The Third Blessing:  Generosity

By Amber Greene, Mama Moontime

Here is part 3 of a 13 part series, where we will delve into the delightful kingdom of childhood. Each month, we will receive a gift from the Wise Women who so blessed the young girl Briar Rose. Some of you may be more familiar with her common name, Sleeping Beauty. Enjoy!

A child is full of a generous heart. They long to share, and do share freely, no matter if you are their parent, friend or a stranger at the bus stop. Children are “noble-minded” and abundant, their love and friendship knows no boundaries.

The adult world of hurts and anger and dislike and fear and loathing, have yet to break the spirit of the child. The child can mend broken hearts and bruised egos just by being open and non-judgemental. They live to love, to cuddle, and spend time by your side. A child’s desire to laugh and play and run and swoop and swing and dodge and eat and cook and dance is matched only by their need and want for you to join them in the fun! They cannot understand our need to work, or clean or make phone calls. They know life is more than that, and desire to share this wondrous life of exploration and adventure with those who have seemingly lost their way. Most of us could pay more attention to their generous nature and heed their gifts!

Not only are children generous of their time and spirit, they too are generous with their curiosity. Never again do we see a fountain of desire sprout so highly in wanting to know every single little thing about the world. They want to know why the sky is blue, why the man over there has only one leg, why caterpillars and worms undulate like waves and the name of every single kind of truck. My son knows no bounds when it comes to sharing picture books or hearing me sing him songs. A child’s energy and will for living a ‘big life’ is unstoppable.

And if we are too busy and cannot answer them, or, purposefully leave a whisper of a breath before answering, their generous nature serves them once again. They make up their own answers! Little ones, so close to the angelic realm from whence they came, hold tight to the golden cable of imagination and creativity and Do Not Let Go. They swing from the cables, and delight in any and every possibility of thought and art. And it is here, in this moment, if we take time to heed their words, that we may be generously gifted with a golden drop of “truth”. Truth is a rare, yet wonderful, gift to treasure for life and children generously share.

So our goal as parents could be to preserve this generous heart. We can heed their natural gifts of childhood by striving to be more like them in nature. When we live by their rule of generosity, we become role models worthy of their imitation, and thus, living a generous life remains natural and normal. (What a wonderful paradox! This idea that by trying to be more like them, we actually help them to be the best they can be, full of beauty and goodness and generosity towards others. ) Our personal quest calls us to leave our preconceived ideas and hurts and endeavour to regain trust in the goodness of people, to know that things will work out for the best, to believe in our own abilities, to see the world of possibility and to recognise the abundant gifts in nature. If we were somehow able to reclaim our childhood generosity and bring it back as adults, just imagine the world we would be creating.

“The Twelve Blessings (and One in Disguise) of Childhood

The Second Blessing:  Virtue 

by guest writer: Amber Greene, Mama Moontime

As a child grows up, they are enmeshed in a social fabric that weaves around them.  Parents play the part of the Unit Commander, holding taut the foundation threads that stand like guards around a fort. The horizontal threads are woven by culture, social norms, friendship groups and questionable judgements in a wave like manner, travelling forwards and backwards as though the mind is not quite made up. 

Virtue is the role of moral goodness, concerned with the child’s developing character.  Their ability to tell right from wrong, to sometimes make the harder choice or take the high road, and their strength to act upon their chosen path with conviction, regardless of peer pressure or the need to be liked. 

Virtuous habits are learned through the lessons of life. Just as it takes a solid month to take possession of a new healthy habit such as exercising or eating salad for dinner or restricting chocolate to weekends only, so too it takes continuous repetition or exposure to good quality influence for the new thoughts and actions to take effect.  As parents, it is our job to grab hold of role models of excellence and to share stories of boldness and greatness.  Children need to believe that the path to victory is open to them too, never more so than when they are enticed with a poisonous apple.  A virtuous character shines an inner light which illuminates the way forward and also exposes the shady characters that lurk behind dark walls.

Sharing stories or incidents is one way to till virtuous soil so it becomes moist and rich and teeming with life.  A story can free the heart of tangled emotion.  Unlike an instruction or a dry statement of intent, stories, over time, help to place choice back into the palms of the child.  Feeling heard and free, there is no need for them to react against a heavy load. Instead they feel entitled to be a part of the decision making and character construction in their life, usually with positive results.  Some Grimm’s and Aesop’s stories are useful, easy to understand tales of virtuous choice and consequence.  This can be an easy place to start, however stories of your own making, including stories from those near and dear to you, play just as an important role.   The layers of story and incident act as a rich and varied selection of thread colours from which the child makes their own character designs.  

“The Twelve Blessings (and One in Disguise) of Childhood”

I feel very privileged to have the lovely Amber from Mama Moontime writing as a special guest on our Blog over the upcoming months starting today!.  Amber is writing a 12-part series on the Qualities of Childhood called “The Twelve Blessings of Childhood”;  one blessing will feature each month.  Amber is a Steiner Kindergarten teacher, loving mum, and very creative soul.  She reminds us of the special gifts that each child brings the world, and the innate qualities within each of them.  You will find her reflections both insightful and heart-warming read.

Here begins a 13 part series, where we will delve into the delightful kingdom of childhood.  Each month, we will receive a gift from the Wise Women who so blessed the young girl Briar Rose.  Some of you may be more familiar with her common name, Sleeping Beauty.  Enjoy!

November:  Goodness

The world of the child is good.  Providing there are the rightly qualities of shelter, food, warmth and love, a child is like a seed planted in the warm brown earth.  With a little sun, a little rain and a drop of nourishment, the child begins to develop a kind heart, wishes to cares for the creatures of the earth and deeply loves family and friends.

The child imitates the qualities in the world surrounding him or her.  If their world is reliable, safe and considerate, so they too carry these traits.  If their world is filled with exuberance, artistry, creative imagination and good story, they too embrace these simple joys.

Life is an undulating traverse over mountains and valleys, yet a solid foundation of goodness helps the child to see the mountains as healthy challenges and the valleys as places of wisdom and growth.  Rarely do we find a plateau, a place to sit and rejoice and contemplate our next move, yet how delightful this plateau is when we rest in a field of goodness. 

We can foster goodness in our homes through story, song, puppetry, drama and the stage.  The artistic pursuits remind us of our need for goodness.  We can reach down deep into the archives of libraries and bookshelves to find poets and authors and songwriters who have captured on paper the essence of goodness.  Rumi, Keats, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Kahlil Gibran and Henry Miller are just a few names worth mentioning in our quest for words of goodness. In more recent times, the words of Maya Angelou, songwriter Jewel and Sarah Ban Breathnach enliven the essence of what it means to be good.  Be inspired by their poetic delivery and pull down your own stars. 

Take children outside for a moment or two each and every day.  Feel the breeze stroke your hair, the sun kiss your cheek, the birdsong and chatter.  Goodness lives among us in every form.  We just need to remember to see it. 

Be gentle with their world.  Make efforts to exclude drama, violence, undesirable talkback radio and questionable lyrics, at least for a moment or two each day. Embrace local content, community gardens, kind playgroup or kindergarten friends and good food. Make good your world through the actions of your hands.  Dig, paint, hug, welcome and craft goodness with every ounce of your being.  Create ‘good’ with every stitch and snip.   Determine your barometer of goodness and accept nothing less.