A Child-like Heart and Uncluttered Joy

I've been rather taken with the notion of the child-like heart for some time now, in fact, a number of years ago I found a book in our library entitled "a childlike heart...Recapture the Freedom of a Child". I love this book, eventually I bought a copy & it has since become one my most revisited reads. It is written by Alan d. Wright, you can find it here.
"Joy. Freedom. Trust. Peace. Imagination. Celebration. Spontaneity. Creativity. Curiosity. Openness. Wonder. Everything that makes life wonderful comes so easily, so naturally to children."
I guess that's why Christmas happiness & willing participation come so readily indeed to most children..they just don't make it that complicated.
Kaitiaki our 5 year old grandson

(he also likes playing in my worm farm)
 is so taken with the notion of Christmas decorating that he pesters his mother everyday after school to go & buy just one more thing. It doesn't enter his head that they might cost money or, be naf, nor does he consider what will become of his collection when The Day is over, he just knows that he is having so much fun & it feels good. There are also secret little gifts being handmade at school & hidden away til the last day. Oh no, the secret is out..can't wait, just have to tell, it's all just too exciting!!

Each year, just down the road, a wonderful Christmas fair is held toward the end of November at Taikura School (Rudolph Steiner). No commercial, tinsel overload here. Just pure wholesome products, gifts & interactive fun..mostly for children & the child-like of heart.

 In fact it would be worth the going just for the kickstart to your imagination & the encounter with the marvelous notion that handmade with love can be engaging, invigorating, satisfying & not have to cost much at all.

 For a very small amount any child is free to join in here & make their own little fairy garden from the carefully supplied ingredients.

 Some people just like to warm up slowly or prefer to just watch.

 Others are drawn immediately to the real stuff.

 Even looking can give pause for thought & flight to the imagination.

 Fancy a ride on a hobby horse?

 This is what the Fair is all about...accessible magical joy.

 While you whistle a happy tune.

Thirsty work all this fun though..anyone for real lemonade?

 Oh to be free once more to just not care what others think about us.

 If the shoes need to come off, then off they come.

 And if you want to dance naked then who cares whose looking! (a wee tot at a concert in "The Redwoods" that I'll tell you about quite soon).

Wishing you a joy-filled & imaginative Christmas journey where your heart is at peace & love abounds.
Remember you are most welcome to pop over Pom Pom's to catch up with other thoughts on "A Childlike Christmas".
MUCH

 ♥♥♥♥♥

Vanishing Brides

Wonderfully, it's our 31st wedding anniversary today. I've been having a few bridal thoughts this week, especially as we've been talking about our wedding day & marveling together at the passing of the years & how we have managed to journey all this way & still end up steadfast friends & deeply in love.

 The Proposal by Margaret Tarrant..on our bedroom wall.

The thing that has got me wondering, however, is where are all the brides? Where ever do they all vanish to?  It seems to me that there is more fuss & carry-on & swathes of money spent on weddings than ever before these days ( sometimes obscene amounts!). The extraordinary lengths that some brides go to make themselves sensational for the BIG day, well quite frankly, breaks me out in a sweat & makes me want to have a lie down. I wonder how many of us still feel like brides a year later or 5 years down the track?

 Pondering bridaliness required wearing my angel halo from time to time..it helped me consider such romantic notions.

 After awhile I found myself picking fragrant white bouquets from the garden..

 and sighing at their beauty. I don't recall anyone saying "ooh she was such an ugly bride". Brides are always beautiful. But what if we stayed being brides & treasured our marriages every day of every year? What if we spent even a fraction of the resource spent on the actual wedding day & instead began to exercise our romantic imagination even just a little bit? (it's not so hard really, you just have to practice a little). Wouldn't it be lovely to reach the other end of life still feeling sweet & graceful & knowing we had been cherished a lifetime & valued ourselves? That's my plan!

 It was easy to get married..actually anyone at all can do it.

 But it's no good just gritting your teeth & hoping that you'll make it. I don't remember a year when things weren't hard, but I am who I am because of Rob & he because of me & we're really quite nice people nowadays. Our only regret, is all the wasted pain & trouble of being swamped with other peoples baggage..families!!
So, for nearly every year of our marriage we have taken small romantic interludes away from the hustle of life...just overnight & not usually traveling far. It all began when we bravely booked ourselves into the County Hotel in Napier, when our kids were little & we were shy & timid & poor but also, somehow brave & determined to love with all our hearts.
This year we set off to Napier again.

 I just had to buy this little doillie from the Antique Centre..look at all the perfectly fashioned hearts!

 And the pretty velvet flowers.

 Our dear friends Rod & Gaye had so generously offered us a night away in their darling "Violet Annie's Cottage" the sweetest little holiday home on their Poraiti property.

 There were flowers in every room

 & gorgeousness around every corner. I wanted to sleep in this bed too!

 We felt so at home,

so welcome 

 & so very blessed.

 The hollyhocks stood sentinel.

 The evening light so lovely.

 Before the 1931 earthquake that completely realigned the landscape of the area, the sea came almost right to the door & was a favourite local picnic spot. Now there are vast estuaries

 & lots of open spaces & walks.

 It's quite hilly around Poraiti way & seems to be well suited to growing stone fruit & olives, avocados & things..

 and building tree houses. I think they may be a tad over supplied with building materials! I actually quite fancied taking home the wee door in the middle..shh don't tell.

 Walking back up the road & home to our cottage..Napier really wasn't far away at all.

 We took simple yummy things to have for our tea.

 Bless her heart, dear Gaye had left this card & the giant love hearts in the cottage for us. I loved the colours in this extravagant pasta that I came across at Bellatinos, we'll save it for another dinner together soon. When I woke next morning I had an overwhelming sense of being wrapped in giant loving arms & being held to a large soft bosom (covered in an apron of course!)..it surely made me cry.

I know that we do not all find a great love in this lifetime & for some it is a brief experience & others it just doesn't work out, but we can still treasure ourselves as the beautiful woman we are, no matter what. 

With much love to you my lovely friends, have a wonderful week.

 ♥♥♥♥♥

A Child-like Christmas and Two Babies in the Manger

How many I times have you heard people say that it's the children who make Christmas special?
I figure that they might mean little sweeties like my darling niece, Nina. She'll be 2 before we know it and this will be her second experience Christmas coming up.

I wonder what she will love about this one? What will she remember of Christmas time 2012...that she unwrapped a zillion different parcels all shiny & bright just for her & ate too many strawberries & sat on a dozen different knees? I wonder?

I wonder too, if we all scrunched up our eyes & squinted really hard & imagined, just for a moment, how Christmas might look through the innocent eyes of a brand new, untarnished child? A child who hasn't the foggiest idea what disappointment means or who Father Christmas actually is. And when that child hears the true Christmas story for the very first time, maybe, something wondrous just might happen..the magic of Christmas might even come alive & seed hope in to our very hearts. A brand new hope, like little Misha found in my favourite Christmas story ever, called "Two Babies in a Manger" from Chicken Soup for the Soul.
I am joining in with my dear friend Karen & other lovely souls at Pom Pom's Ponderings as we journey through the weeks leading to Christmas day & share thoughts on a "Child-like Christmas". I shared this story last year & I have just read it once more for my dear Phone News friends (a local phone new service for the blind) & I will go on reading & sharing it every year for the rest of my days..I just know it! Maybe you have someone that you might like to share it with too.

Two Babies in a Manger

In 1994, two Americans answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics (based on biblical principles) in the public schools. They were invited to teach at prisons, businesses, the fire and police departments, and a large orphanage. About one hundred boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were in the orphanage. They relate the following story in their own words:

It was nearing the holiday season, 1994. Time for our orphans to hear for the first time, the traditional story of Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem. Finding no room in the inn, the couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger. Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word. Completing the story, we gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude mangerEach child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins I had brought with me. No colored paper was available in the city. Following the instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw. Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown an American lady threw away as she left Russia, were used for the baby's blankets. A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt we had brought from the United States. The orphans were busy assembling their mangers as I walked among them to see if they needed any help. All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat. He looked to be about six years old and had finished his project.As I looked at the little boy's manger, I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. Quickly, I called for the translator to ask the lad why there were two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously. For such a young child, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings very accurately, until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger.Then Misha started to ad-lib. He made up his own ending to the story as he said, "And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don't have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn't, because I didn't have a gift to give him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, 'If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?'"And Jesus told me, 'If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me.' So I got in the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me that I could stay with him—for always."As little Misha finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed. The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay with him—FOR ALWAYS.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8: 38, 39

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