{"id":62,"date":"2011-12-15T11:06:15","date_gmt":"2011-12-15T19:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elizabethclarkstern.com\/wordpress\/?p=62"},"modified":"2011-12-15T11:06:15","modified_gmt":"2011-12-15T19:06:15","slug":"62","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elizabethclarkstern.com\/wordpress\/?p=62","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the Sleigh Bells and Ink Wells Blog Hop! See links at the bottom of this posting to hop on to the chain of blogs for 12 wonderful writers!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0IN CELEBRATION OF THE CHILD<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The images are everywhere during the holidays: Clara in The Nutcracker, eyes filled with wonder; the orphaned boy, Hugo, so curious and fierce in spite of the tragic loss of his father, and the Christ child himself, a babe in a manger on a cold winter\u2019s night.<\/p>\n

Stories abound in all cultures of the virgin birth of a god, born in the dead of winter, heralding new life that comes with the Spring. It must be a virgin, because psychologically, the birth of this new, sacred energy comes not from physical human intercourse, but from the person\u2019s \u201cimpregnated\u201d relationship with the divine within. The beauty of story and metaphor is that its symbols cover all definitions of the divine, from the Higher Power, to psychological wholeness, to the spirit guide, to God or Goddess of all faiths.<\/p>\n

In the world of literature and fairy tales, the path of the soul has often been told with a child protagonist. He or she is quickly orphaned, or, as with Huckleberry Finn, the child is on the run from an abusive parent or wicked step parent. Success requires courage, loving friends, and, magical guide who embodies the divine.<\/p>\n

Each of us begins life as an infant. We become a child, conscious of the world, and our own feelings. We encounter loss, obstacles, and struggle to find our way home. In this life-long journey, we can return again and again to the archetypal child within. We can view loss, and tragedy with fresh eyes, finding new dimensions of curiosity, compassion, generosity, and resilience.<\/p>\n

In my own childhood, I experienced considerable trauma and loss in my family. I survived by surrounding myself with creative play, friends, and children\u2019s literature. I didn\u2019t realize it then, but I was developing a relationship with the divine.<\/p>\n

In The Secret Garden, <\/em>a robin red breast shows <\/em>the orphaned Mary Lennox where to dig up the key to an abandoned, locked garden. In The Wind in the Willows<\/em>, my favorite chapter was The Piper at the Gates of Dawn<\/em>. A baby otter is lost. Mole and Rat search all night, and at dawn, discover the Piper, half man, half goat, playing his protective tune to the sleeping baby otter. Every time I was sad about my family, I read this chapter, and felt the power of a great love, embedded in Nature Herself.<\/p>\n

Now I have created my own literature. Soul Stories<\/em> is a collection of two novels: Safari to Mara, and Aria of the Horned Toad<\/em>, for older children, and for the child in all of us.<\/p>\n

In Safari<\/em>, ten year old Mara is born to a loving family in Kenya\u2019s Masai Mara. She enters an apprenticeship with her safari guide father, and is thrilled to be so close to the animals\u00a0 of the African wilderness. Tragedy comes when fever takes the life of her beloved mother. Mara must fight her way out of grief and despair. She prays to the Masai goddess, Engai, in the face of the moon. Mara rescues an orphaned baby zebra, and finds the long way back to her true self.<\/p>\n

In Horned Toad<\/em>, ten year old Beatrice is growing up in a Texas family filled with love and strife. Her mama, it seems, loves gin cocktails more than her own daughter. Beatrice enlists the help of two neighbor kids on a journey to the dream country. Surely, if they can find the Dreammaker, he will weave the perfect dream to cure Mama of her drinking. The tragedy of addiction throbs at the heart of this story, and the children must wrestle many demons, real and imagined, to claim their own value, and inspire hope and change for their families.<\/p>\n

If you would like to enter the world of my Soul Stories, you can read excerpts, and articles on my website http:\/\/www.soulstories.net<\/a> Books may be ordered from Amazon. Direct link is http:\/\/amazon.com\/SoulStories-Safari-Mara-Horned\/dp\/1926975006<\/a><\/p>\n

AND, I invite you to hop onto the links below, to learn about the wonderful writers participating in the Blog Hop of Sleigh Bells and Ink Wells!<\/em><\/p>\n

BLOG HOP PARTICIPANTS <\/strong>NAME …\u00a0<\/strong>BLOG NAME, and\u00a0<\/strong>BLOG URL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Smoky Zeidel,\u00a0Smoky Talks,\u00a0http:\/\/SmokyZeidel.wordpress.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Patricia Damery,\u00a0Patricia Damery,\u00a0http:\/\/www.patriciadamery.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Debra Brenegan, Debra Brenegan, author,\u00a0http:\/\/debrabrenegan.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Malcolm R. Campbell,\u00a0Malcolm\u2019s Round Table,
\nhttp:\/\/KnightOfSwords.wordpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n

T.K. Thorne,\u00a0T. K.\u2019s Tales,\u00a0http:\/\/tkthorne.wordpress.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Anne K. Albert, Anne K. Albert, http:\/\/Anne-K-Albert.blogspot.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Elizabeth Clark-Stern, Elizabeth Clark Stern\u2019s Blog, https:\/\/elizabethclarkstern.com\/wordpress\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Collin Kelley, Modern Confessional,\u00a0http:\/\/collinkelley.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Sharon Heath, Sharon Heath,\u00a0http:\/\/www.sharonheath.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Melinda Clayton,\u00a0Melinda Clayton, Author\u00a0http:\/\/AuthorMelindaClayton.xanga.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Ramey Channell,\u00a0Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/SweetMusicOnMoonlightRidge.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Leah Shelleda,\u00a0After the Jug was Broken,\u00a0http:\/\/www.leahshelleda.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the Sleigh Bells and Ink Wells Blog Hop! See links at the bottom of this posting to hop on to the chain of blogs for 12 wonderful writers! \u00a0IN CELEBRATION OF THE CHILD The images are everywhere during … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabethclarkstern.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabethclarkstern.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabethclarkstern.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabethclarkstern.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabethclarkstern.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/elizabethclarkstern.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63,"href":"https:\/\/elizabethclarkstern.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions\/63"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabethclarkstern.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabethclarkstern.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabethclarkstern.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}