Being With a Child

In her popular new book, The Goodness of Rain: Developing an Ecological Identity in Young Children, Ann Pelo reflects on her experience in being the caregiver of 2-year-old Dylan.  In one passage she comments:

"There is no easy distillation of how to be in place with a child.  With Dylan at the blackberries, sometimes we discussed their sweet tang, sometimes we just savored the fruit, sharing purple smiles.  There were times through the winter and spring when I talked with Dylan about the bushes' cycle of rest and growth, sometimes those explanations sounded like foolish jibber-jabber, and sometimes I nailed the right balance of contexting information. 

"The only instruction for how to be in a place with a child, it seems to me, is to be wholeheartedly attentive, genuinely present.  Which means, sometimes, conversation, and sometimes, quiet.  Sometimes, naming, sometimes, marveling.  Being present, together all the time, in generous and interested relationship with each other and with a place."

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