listening to children
as presence, as trust, as awe, as love
I go to sleep and wake up immersed in the echoes of a whisper:
Listen to children.
I feel its vibration, simple and true, as it shines light upon layers and pathways of listening.
I continue to see a landscape of moments, each moment a map of frequency.
This world, oh, this world, this collective mirror and reckoning.
This world we are living in is also the world we are living into.
How do we choose to live our moments now?
I remind myself that this is the question that matters.
Each of us has a role to play.
Each of us, through our choices of attention.
I hear a hum: There are many kinds of soil. And we need many kinds of farmers.
Our attention is soil.
What do we choose to plant and nurture?
I choose trust and awe and devotion.
I choose breath and the moon and letting go of the reins.
I choose to see the whole of shadows and open my heart to the ache.
I choose wonder and play and delight.
I bow to the beetle, hum with the bumblebee, and listen to the child.
Listen, listen, lissssssten to children.
My attention follows this wisp of prayer and I live into a wildflower field of children.
There is here, witness is merge, and circles are songs…
Come along, let’s play
as seeds spin stories
and roots teach time.
Hands are hearts.
Footsteps are too.
Dragons tell the truth.
Ladybugs look for wishes.
Squirrels wonder why.
Roll, slide, stomp, soar, sigh.
Twist and turn and try.
Search is show and remember is dream.
Tears are angels.
Curl up with a dandelion and feel it all.
Shimmer is edge and bridge.
Unicorns are only love.
Everything is more than the surface says.
Ocean is glimpse.
Sky is scratch.
Listening is beginning,
again.
Listen, listen, lissssssten to children.
Let go of meanings and reasons why.
No agenda or in order to __.
We listen to children to lissssssten.
Process is outcome is all there is.
Listening as presence, as trust, as awe, as love.
I will forever be learning how to listen to children. I know this for sure.
I also know, for sure, that I am here to guide our human practice in ways of listening, especially our listening to children.
From the spiraled softness of my daily devotion to listening, a new creative offering has emerged to share with you: Listening to Children.
May its vessel, and the attention of our practice within it, pollinate a more beautiful world rich in the frequencies of children.
Come along, let’s play!
*
as delight, Melissa
