A first Soul Images Story (in production)
This is a children’s story, a story I hope mothers will read to their children
… because maybe it is for the mothers.
Here is a short excerpt…
Once the cookies came out of the oven Jamie had set out her feathery, furry friends in a half circle around a chair – just the way she liked story time. They looked as eager as Jamie, with their furry fabric faces, perked up – forever ready to listen.
She found herself a spot close to the plate of heart shaped cookies in front of the chair – surrounded by her faithful companions – all looking at me attentively – full of anticipation!
This story was born in my own Sandplay Therapy process. Someone asked me recently if it is a therapeutic story. I know it was therapeutic for me to write, and I hope it might be meaningful for others, for children and their parents, well, mostly their mothers. While it is a story of a little girl on a big adventure, there is an underlying layer of motherhood, of mother-child relationship, even the interconnectedness of us and our mothers and their mothers. The intergenerational blessing. I did not know my maternal grandmother as she passed away before I was one year old, however I have discovered a connection with her in my therapeutic journey. My story explores this.
Another aspect of my therapeutic journey that is evident in the story is an attempt to integrate my South African heritage with my New Zealander status. As an immigrant it has been a journey to find belonging, this story is still being written in my life.
Finally I think I am attempting in this story to make sense of what spiritualty means for me, in a symbolic way – and I will leave that open to the reader’s interpretation, hoping that maybe the reader will find their own meaning in the story, and not get tied up in what I believe, or think I believe. Another ongoing story.
Having said all that, I may have you wondering if this really is a children’s story? Yes it is. My godchildren approved. This is from their mum…
We finished the baobab today. It was beautiful. We all three loved the underwater chapter! The youngest begged to keep reading… but we had school to go to.
The writing is done. Next I hope to make my way through the indie publishing process soon. Watch this space.
Wisdom is like a baobab tree; no one individual can embrace it.
– An African proverb