“Can we go to the candy store?”
“Not today. Maybe another day.”
“Can we go to the park?”
“Later, Sweetie. It is raining now.”
Fidget, fidget, scan the room.
“Can I have a phone?”
“Maybe one day.”
“Can we go to Disney Land?”
“Maybe someday.”
Sigh.
Another one.
“Can someday be today?”
For The Daily Post
He won’t let her have a quiet cup of coffee.
He won’t let her sleep.
He needs her when she bathes
Or pees.
He whines during any of her conversations
Cares little for her schedule
Her meetings
Her needs.
He requires constant attention
Won’t be left alone
Must come along.
That phone.
There are a few things so precious as knowing one is seen, heard, known, accepted, cherished.
Loved.
As is.
Just because.
And no matter what or when or how or what else is most certainly going on that may well take front seat and burner.
Few things are as real to the core of one’s heart and to the moon and back again.
When I forget, in the bustle of the day-to-day annoyances and to-do lists and in the boggy mess of worry and all manner of variegated helplessness … I remember.
This.
A card from a dear friend who is no longer here in physical form, and who even as she struggled to find light at the end of the already quite dark tunnel of the illness that would soon after claim her life, still held the thought and found the energy to send me this.
Just because.
From India.
A transcript of caring.
via Discover Challenge: Transcript
Even the uneven
path
holds some stability
on the rickety
reality
of continued
hope.
From Etsy
She looked at me with sparkles in her eyes: “My Granny’s coming tomorrow!”
I smiled.
“We going to have so much fun!” Her eyes shone. “Granny is my favorite grandma ever forever!”
“You’re excited she’s coming,” I stated.
The child gave me the “that’s-the-understatement-of-the-year-look.”
The mom and I exchanged glances and laughed.
“Can you imagine her as a teenager?” the mom noted, chuckled. “She’s practicing the eye-roll already …”
The little girl transferred “the look” to her mom, but only half-heartedly. They were both of them quite giddy with the prospect of the visit. The grandma lives out of the country but the bond is evident. I often hear tales of simultaneous cookie-baking on both sides of the Atlantic, bedtime stories on FaceTime, and daily checking-ins. Now Granny will manifest in real life, and Mom’s eyes–an only child herself–were just as shiny as her daughter’s.
“She going to stay in my room,” the four-year-old danced on her feet, shoes alight with strobes and glitter. “I have the best comfy bed for her …” she lowered her voice in exaggerated gossip-conspiration, “because she old … but …” she glanced at her mother, maybe aware of the weight of possibility or maybe remembering the source of the added information, maybe both, “…she not dying yet. She just a little bit very old.”
There’s so much harshness and rigidity, so many difficult realities, hardened views, unyielding opinions, and limited acceptance all around, that it can be easy to forget the infinite sweetness that exists all around us.
The infinite sweetness
In a baby’s smile.
In a youngling’s antics.
In the green of an unfurling leaf.
In a stranger’s compassion.
In a perfect strawberry.
In a sip of tea on snowy days.
In the sigh of warm bath water.
In the life that sheds and lives and sheds and lives in all around us.
In the repeating revolution of this planet, hurtling as it is through space in speeds we cannot comprehend and yet are an integral part of.
The infinite sweetness of what can be remembered with nostalgia and what is hoped for and may well become — or may just, possibly, find pathways.
To infinity.
Photo Credit A.A.
Photo Credit: Y.B.
Be your best self.
The self you would expect
a child
a friend
a family member
a neighbor, citizen, fellow human
to be.
The self you know you can. Be.
On this longest night:
Spread light.
In this shortest day,
Of briefest sun
Of darkest dark:
Take heart
Be kind
Live love
Hug tight.
Photo Credit: A.A.
The animation video below was chosen to lead the European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse which is held on November 18.
The five-minute video had been originally launched in Hebrew, and was since translated to Russian, English, and French. It guides parents, teachers, and other caregivers in ways to identify and react to cases of sexual assault and abuse in children. It has been incorporated into learning programs in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
The clip portrays with sensitivity and clarity the reactions children often have to sexual abuse: dissociation, denial, secrecy, fear, worry, shame, and more. It also shows the behaviors children might display and which should be treated as red flags: reluctance to do things or go places they might’ve enjoyed before, irritability, sadness, refusal, lack of appetite, bed-wetting, physical complaints, etc. While these may not be specific to sexual abuse, they are often representation of distress, and need attending to.
It is a fact that most children who endure sexual abuse don’t tell. At least not directly.
It is also a fact that many parents/teachers/caregivers don’t know when to ask or how to ask or what to do or say if they find out something did take place. They may not understand how a child can seem okay, even when they are internally not okay. Even those who want to help, may not know how to go about it.
This video offers a good start.
Watch it. Share it widely.
For the Hebrew version, and more information (in Hebrew) about sexual abuse of children, and ways to identify and respond to red-flags, click on the link to an article below:
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4880054,00.html
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