15 Comments

Congratulations, Bonnie! This makes me smile and tilt my head sideways, shuffle my feet a bit and listen to the tune inside my head. Yowser!!

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I witnessed, that confrontation. Something came alive. Love your first attempt!

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Thanks Samuel!

This really was a rich learning experience and I can easily tell that there is tons of room for improvement. But did you notice a bit of dispositional state, affect, perception, imagination, ingression, actions that satisfy…?!

Honestly, I think writing for children could be a powerful exercise for anyone working with complex ideas…you have no choice but to learn how to simplify!

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Wow, this would actually make a great kids’ picture book story! I can already see some of the illustrations!

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It would be super fun to see this as a book. Are you an illustrator?

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my sister often mentioned hear desire of creating a childrens book https://verenahobl.at/

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Feel free to share this with her! And, if she wanted to do it, I could definitely keep working to make the writing better. Maybe you could be the editor! 😜

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I’m an artist but not an illustrator - I’m primarily a silversmith but I do also draw and paint, just not what I’d call illustration. However…I’ve always loved illustration, especially good children’s illustrations! I imagine that goes right back to childhood and the (many) books I used to spend a lot of time with.

I’m not sure that I could do your story justice but I’d love to play around with some ideas!

My IG is kate.case if you’re interested to see what sort of stuff I make

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Well, I was mainly trying to write a Substack post, I never thought I could get to an actual book . . . so please feel free to play with it any way you like if you feel "drawn" to do so! And if you get into it and end up doing something with it, let me know!

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Children’s books have the chance to be incredibly formative to young minds and your story conveys such a beautiful and important message

Oh and yes, if I end up with something I will definitely let you know 😀

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Thanks for saying that! . . . and yes, please do stay in touch!

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Outstanding Seth ( I prefer to call you Dellinger to give you credit for your Ancestor (;) That had true feeling with all the subtle senses involved.

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Thanks John! Please feel free to share it with any kids that you know!

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This is a great introduction to opening to feelings, child or adult. But being aware of feelings doesn't make you "feelings literate" any more than being able to read words on a page makes you conventionally literate. If you don't comprehend what the feelings convey then you're just lost in the feelings. Not a bad thing to do occasionally, maybe more than occasionally. But being lost in feelings constantly leaves you experiencing only part of the portion of reality feelings represent that is possible.

Just a reminder that balance and shifting primary emphasis to what's appropriate needs to be included in presentations.

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Glad this resonated as an "introduction to opening to feelings." It was a challenge to write since I've never written for children before.

It seems like the rest of your comment is in response to the quote at the end by Bonnitta Roy. What she teaches informs this children's story, but obviously "grown up" language is needed to get to what she means. The last thing she is talking about is being "lost in feelings".

Her most succint teaching is that what is needed today is for us to "put the mind back into the body and the body back into nature." The word "feelings" is used so many different ways that it's hard to know what people mean by it. But if we go deeper, there are layers to our experience and at the very bottom is our sensory motor core. Emotional "feeling" is above that foundation and yes, will disorient a person who is not connected to what lies beneath.

Here's a more "grown up" piece I wrote on this recently:

https://open.substack.com/pub/sethdellinger/p/thinking-feeling-sensing-and-doing?r=p5zo5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

For Bonnitta's work, check out The Pop-Up School here on Substack or maybe watch this:

https://youtu.be/QivUf1QXtP8?si=RfIzFAPZRlEu662d

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