“Give me the child for seven years, and I will give you the man.” Baltasar Gracian, Spanish Jesuit scholar. 1601-1658
Sonic was 7 years old on Sunday, and with the coming of the day I reflected on the above quote that who he is now will be who he is as a man, and I am proud that he is the creative, explorative, kind child that he is.
I read a most interesting book by Dr Dan Seigel who concluded through his research that this quote reflects neurscience: That by age 7 the brain is pretty much mapped for life. This knowledge has led me to feel an overwhelming pressure to nurture and stay in tune with my children, however it has also led to tremendous amounts of guilt when I have not been able to – that old mothering chestnut! But he says, the good news is that in the developing science of neuroplasticity. It is now thought that our brain can rewire itself in as little as 6 weeks with mindfulness techniques. John Holt himself demonstrated this ability by defying mainstream thinking (and didn’t he always?) by leaning how to play the cello in his late forties! I still have much work to do in achieving consciousness and mindfulness in my own actions let alone modelling this ability for the children in my life, but the project is life long.
My current interest is in the history of Gnosticism and the Gnostic gospels only recently translated and released about Jesus, which interestingly demonstrate this such knowledge of owning ones own thoughts and creating our own perception of reality.
Back to the non-science entrenched birthday – we spent the day playing games, making Lego, visiting baby bunnies, and went to Orana Wildlife Park. For the first time in our visits we managed to join the keepers as they fed the animals and gave talks. We saw the giraffe, rhinos, trout and cheetahs up close and developed further admiration for them. Sonic actually got to a point at the cheetahs where he simply wanted to go home and do more Lego, but after the cheetahs started meowing like baby kittens we were transfixed. Back at home he watched Harry Potter with his sisters and Sergeant while I made his favourite dinner of lamb lasagne followed by ice-cream.
thebarefootchroniclesofus 