Relaxing Into Our Bodies

“We adults tend to be squeamish about our bodies, carefully managing our scents and secretions, our hungers and desires. Not children,” writes Ann Pelo in her beautiful book, The Goodness of Rain, where she describes the many lessons learned during a magical year as a caregiver for young Dylan, with a commitment to spending time outdoors every day, no matter the weather.  

“When I began my year with Dylan, I thought myself attuned to the physical world, ready to bend close to a flower to study its depths, or to pause on a walk to listen to a bird’s song. But my attention was short-lived, I learned, when Dylan was my companion…Dylan took such a lot of time with each encounter, belying the notion that young children have short attention spans…

I learned from Dylan the meaning of the oft-spoken adage that we ought to look at the world the way a child looks, ‘as if for the first time,’ and, so, I slowed down – way, way down…

I didn’t start behaving like Dylan – I didn’t start burying my nose in my lunch and licking raindrops off my coat. But I certainly relaxed more fully into my body, and more importantly, I learned to give Dylan ample permission to bring every sense into her encounters with the world.” 

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