Most adults can share stories of things children did or said that made them smile. There is freshness in the simplicity and wonder through which children view the world. A world which perhaps we adults have made too complicated for our own good; but there is also a weakness. As parents we know that our world is full of wonderful things, but we are also conscious of the darkness that is present, and we are reminded of it while reading the newspaper or watching the news. This world is not a good place to be innocent, which is what children are. That is why children have to be protected by their parents. But in order to do this something has to happen. We, the parents, have to cease being children ourselves.
Living in the adult world is difficult. We face the wear and tear of the daily rat race, we do housework, we pay bills, and we worry about what the future will bring. Will I keep my job? Will my health and that of my loved ones be OK? Am I making the best decisions for the future of my family? As we age we progressively toughen up dealing with the world, its opportunities, and its dangers. But many of us lose something in the process, the capacity to view the world as a child. This loss has been recognized as something negative by many cultures throughout the ages. In the Bible, for example, there is a passage about the need to be like a child to inherit the kingdom of God.
This is why I wrote a series of stories which I have grouped under the title The Sun Zebra, Adventures in Living of Nell and Her Family. I wrote them to reclaim that freshness, that vision of the world through the eyes of a child that many of us adults lost a long time ago. These stories were fun to write, they made me laugh and cry remembering the child I used to be, and I hope that through them I can make you experience that magic again, or help you latch on to it if you feel you are loosing it.
My e-book The Sun Zebra will be free on Amazon from November 17 to November 18. Please download it (it's a quick read), and let me know what you think. If you don't have a Kindle you can download an app that will allow you to read Kindle books on your computer here.
Thank you and I hope that you too can go look for the zebra!
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