We can all learn from children
The blog She Writes, aimed at female writers, recently asked members what inspired them to write. I wrote a post on their site called “Inspire the future — a book on inner change for children.” In it, I discuss my inspiration to write my children’s book, Gracie’s Got a Secret, which MW Books Publishing will publish in the spring of 2011. I love to inspire others. I always encourage people to go after a dream, take a chance, and let their creative, intuitive self out.
Spirituality — a sense of interconnectedness or soulfulness beyond mere ego identity — has been my salvation. In writing Gracie’s Got a Secret, I wanted to pass on spiritual concepts to children. But after many drafts and trying out the story with kids of different ages, I realized that I was targeting too young an age group (five and six) and that I needed to make the story more concrete, rather than try to convey abstract philosophies like “letting go” and “surrender”. As one adult reader said about my manuscript early on: “It’s hard enough for adults to grasp these concepts, let alone children.” She was right.
Therefore, I aimed the book at older kids, aged seven to nine. I shifted the book’s message to suggest behaviour changes such as learning to slow down and relax into the moment, rather than forcing events to unfold. I do address the notion of “stillness” at the end of my story. I like to think that my playful tale still offers a subtext of spiritual connection. What I try to show obliquely in the book is that if you take time to open to your Higher Self, and plug into a greater life force, however you perceive it to be (some might call it Source, others intuition), you invite your True Self to emerge, drawing on a vast array of possibilities and creative power. Any creative soul — artist, musician, writer — knows this, either consciously or unconsciously.
Young children start out naturally in this state of creative wonder and openness — until many adults hammer it out of them. Maybe children aren’t the ones who need the message in my book after all — perhaps I unwittingly targeted it to the adults in their life. Maybe, ultimately, I’ve written it as my own reminder to have patience and trust what comes my way. Life is its own lesson. I’m still learning.