There have been many children: the wounded, the playful, the restless and the sad. They are of many ages and varied temperaments, all residing within me, more or less harmoniously and welcoming of kinship. Each has required my special attention and each has rewarded my enquiry with love and their own unique, quirky, fresh and talented views on life.
But there has been one... That one child, barely glimpsed, frightened, lonely and stubbornly inaccessible. Despite her youth there is something ancient and primal about her, like a wild and wondrous spirit of the woods: the one you glimpse fleetingly from the corner of your eye and that forever after haunts you with the desire to know what you have seen.
That child lives also within me, a wraith of indeterminate origin and little trust in me or in any creature. I know that I need her, we need her, and we hope that she also needs us. I begin to suspect that she resides in the one place I have never yet had the courage to fully inhabit: my body. She alone is its caretaker and she guards it fiercely.
As with any wild and beautiful creature, I approach in the only way possible. I move myself into the stillness of profound respect and welcome, and I settle down to wait.
But there has been one... That one child, barely glimpsed, frightened, lonely and stubbornly inaccessible. Despite her youth there is something ancient and primal about her, like a wild and wondrous spirit of the woods: the one you glimpse fleetingly from the corner of your eye and that forever after haunts you with the desire to know what you have seen.
That child lives also within me, a wraith of indeterminate origin and little trust in me or in any creature. I know that I need her, we need her, and we hope that she also needs us. I begin to suspect that she resides in the one place I have never yet had the courage to fully inhabit: my body. She alone is its caretaker and she guards it fiercely.
As with any wild and beautiful creature, I approach in the only way possible. I move myself into the stillness of profound respect and welcome, and I settle down to wait.