I want to tell you a little more about my upcoming free webinar with teacher and author Komathy Caandeepan.
One of my favorite verses from the classical Tamil masterpiece on ethics, power, and love, the Kural, has to do with how we relate to the children in our lives.
The poet Tiruvalluvar says:
Those who don’t hear the babble of their children
Call the flute and the lyre sweet
If you’d like, you can listen to me share both my translation and the original Tamil in this short video:
The Beauty of Babble
Tiruvalluvar turns our attention to the sweet music that can be found in the voices of children, even if they’re babbling on and on, or not speaking words yet at all.
There is indeed a beauty that arises in a young voice experiencing the newness of the world.
But it recently occurred to me that there’s also another layer to the wisdom of this verse. Children are not only deeply sensitive to beauty, but also deeply sensitive to the entire gamut of human experience, from joy and delight to pain and hurt.
And sometimes what we hear from young children–or the young sides of our own selves–may be a babbling about something bothering them that they may not be able to understand.
What sweetness would come from hearing this? The sweetness of connecting across the generations and offering the deep medicine of hearing and being heard.
The Discovery of One’s Voice
In the books for children by my friend Komathy Caandeepan, the main character, a young Sri Lankan Tamil Canadian named Thamarai, “Lotus Flower,” discovers her voice and roots while navigating a world away from her childhood home.
Each time I read them I’m struck by how much wisdom Thamarai has to offer every person who takes the time to listen to her and delight in what she says.
That’s why I’m delighted to have Komathy Caandeepan joining me in a no-cost webinar this coming Thursday, May 21, at 8pm Eastern / 5pm Pacific.
I’m particularly excited to explore with her how books for children can be an important part of the work of healing from the historical and cultural ruptures that have become all too common in our days.
How does a book for children help heal the child we may be carrying in our own heart? And what do children have to teach us about being fully present to the world in all its contradictions?
Please join us, and don’t hesitate to invite anyone else you think might be interested.
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Together we can explore what Ezra Pound calls “news that STAYS new.”