A blog dedicated to those who can’t meet their loved ones because of the pandemic. How does grandma and grandpa feel this summer as Jack can’t travel to visit them?
Jack Wee Rabbit’s granny shares her thoughts with us, dedicating this to everyone who won’t meet with their family this summer.
A more personal blog from us and food for thought… A reminder that if we want to reform the world and make it better, we should reform upbringing.
All the light and beauty of the world is in the eyes of the children
A new summer arrived. A strange new summer, as it finds us all with so many questions. A pandemic we were not “prepared” for that brought so many changes and uncertainty in our lives. The long warm days began in Greece, and a hot summer is ahead. The calm blue Greek sea is so welcoming, promising peace and exaltation.
I am on the beautiful beach today looking at the clear blue waters, day dreaming and loaded with ambiguous emotions. A combination of happiness and sadness at the same time. Happiness to be blessed to be surrounded by this beauty. Sadness as this year I know I can’t share these moments with my loved ones who live far away. But love is life, and love is keeping us moving forward, gives us purpose. I am looking at the shore, I hear a happy bee, and I see children swimming, laughing, playing and building sand towers. They then tear them down and rebuild them again. A nostalgia overwhelms me, bringing me lovely memories and images of the last summer. A sweet sorrow and a sweet jealousy anchors me, as I am watching parents and grandparents accompanying the children, looking after them, encouraging them play and enjoy time in the beech.
One of the richest feelings in life is the ability to experience the miracle of life through the purity of the child’s gaze. Every child is unique and special and every smile, every heartbeat is a new hope and an inexhaustible source of inspiration. “Love the child,” wrote Janusz Korczak, a pediatrician, educator, writer, and social activist. “To reform the world we need to reform upbringing”. Respect the mysteries and ups and downs they go through- growing up isn’t an easy task, is it? Children have the right to make mistakes, as do adults. Let’s renounce the desire for the perfect child. Let’s try to listen and see things through the eyes of children with love, kindness and understanding.
Let children grow their own wings. Support them to fly.
“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for life. You can give them your love but not your thoughts,” said Khalil Gibran. But this is one side of the same coin. The other is the feelings of separation, sadness, nostalgia and memories, but also the happy feeling of anticipation- we will meet again. Watching the calm sea waters I whisper to myself – “let us always take a step back, watching our children go their own way, the one they chose to walk in life”.
Dr Vaso Sidi, paediatric oncologist and author
Website: https://vaso-sidi.gr
Illustrations, translation and adaptation, Ioanna Nixon
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