I spontaneously shared about the practice of short moments with the children in my care to help them to find in themselves the stability and clear discernment that I benefited from. There were immediate results, like for example one 4 year old child reported back to me how they ‘relaxed for a short moment and didn’t need to squish their friend’ This line went straight into the book!
Another time, when we spoke of open intelligence being ok all the time, a child in my care asked ‘Really are we ok all the time?’ and I answered ‘Why don’t you check in a short moment’, they then couldn’t stop giggling ‘Wow! When I check I am ok!’ This line went straight into one of the books too!
After about 5 years of sharing the practice spontaneously with children, I started to tell the children in my care the stories of other children who practiced short moments and how that helped them in their lives. The children quickly had their favourite stories that they asked to be told again and again. This is how these stories came about.
Many of the children in my care are very much involved, it is definitely their project too! They helped me to find names for the heroes of the Pearl Collection, alliterations, melodies for the nursery rhymes, and advised on what the characters could wear. Whilst I illustrated the books, they got on with crafts and excitedly looked at each new version of the books as I updated them on the tablet. I felt so supported by them!
They showed me when the narrative wasn’t to the point as their attention dwindled and showed me when it was exactly on target as they were fascinated and wanted to see the pictures closely to not miss any details! We are all so excited that now the first few books have reached a stage where they are ready to be published to benefit more children around the world! Some of the children want to get involved recording the voices for the audio books too :-) so watch this space!
Thank you for backing the project! It means the world to be able to bring to fruition beneficial media for children.