When I was younger, 11 I think, I was at school and I remember it was a freezing cold day and we were huddled into our new classrooms for a storytime. The classrooms had just been finished and we were all excited about all the ‘new stuff’ that just had to be fiddled with, fondled and explored. New furnishings, beanbags, paintings and pictures. That smell of ‘new’ taking over and filling us all with mad inspiration and excitement. 

I remember going over to a new sideboard where there was a collection of books and a cast iron radiator underneath it which I suppose looking back, is what drew me in. I spent some time there, most probably in one of my procrastinating trances and I remember running my fingers over all of the books before settling on one, a book on Canada where the front cover grabbed me because it reminded me ot the scene outside the very window I was stood facing but in a far more elaborate and extreme sense so I picked it up and went and sat down on a beanbag, flicking through page after page of beautiful stories and pictures of a rural part of North Easter Canada.

The story was being narrated by a young girl, maybe my age or a year or two older (although the book was written some years before) and she was taking us through her daily life in the town that she lived in. Please bear in mind that I am 44 years old now and at the time of reading this book and I only read it once, I was 11 and I can remember every detail of the pictures on every single page. I can’t quite remember the story and I’ll tell you why, because I am not sure if the story the girl was telling was hers, or if it was one I made up myself based on her pictures that gave a ‘feeling’ of what she was telling me but, I distinctly remember being so mesmerized by this book because it was entailing very visually the story of another child’s life across the world that was so very different to mine. 

I remember looking at photos of her and thinking she was breathtaking. She looked like a bright blonde inuit. I suppose what we consider Finnish people to look like with their almost Asiatic qualities but with highly nordic primary features. As a child, you always look at the quirky qualities of others (or at least I did) and try to find connections that attract you. Everyone that has curly hair wants straight hair, everyone that’s short wants to be tall etc, it’s how we compare ourselves to find our place and it’s such an exciting part of the self adventure discovery but I was bewitched by this girl and desperately wanted to be her friend. A mere few pictures and I had conjured up a new best friend across the world based on the stories she had to share that captured my imagination and interest.

I remember her describing how she would wake up every morning and come down for a hot breakfast with her 2 dogs. Husky looking things that would sit next to her while she ate. A huge fire next to her table and she had her bright blond hair in strict smooth plaits, a native woven jacket and and suede and leather snow boots pulled up to her mid shins to keep her legs warm.They had toggles on them. I wanted boots with toggles on them. Then she would walk to school through the snow forest with her father and help him to collect wood on the way. And at night time she would help her family in the house, all in one room, the blankets stood out to me as I imagined how warm and cozy they would feel in that cold, next to the fire eating bison stew and potatoes. 

Where I am going with this is that years later, I am long done with school, but these small moments of seeming insignificance remain to this day far beyond the ‘on repeat’ math lessons or’ same same’ english or science classes. Drilling doesn’t really work for long term memory recall. It just leaves dull bruises but what really imprints and leaves its mark are the lessons that touch our soul. 

For me, those lessons were ones that weren’ really lessons but taught me more about life than any of the actual lessons deemed to be important. The ones where my eyes opened to the world around me through pages in a book. 

This is why I am so desperately determined to encourage children to read read read books of any kind. To become inspired and excited about the world around you in its true form. To not be swayed or distracted by what big bad wolves deem important but to stay gold in your quest for knowledge and truth. The world around you never lies and will always hold it’s truths for you to seek if you wish

As I write this, my 10 year old daughter is watching a video online (I wonder if she’ll remember snippets and clips she sees now in 30 years time) but she is pausing to tell me a ‘fact’ about how if a black bear comes towards you, you have to fight back, when a brown bear ‘grizzly’ comes towards you you must lay down and play dead but if a polar bear comes towards you, you might as well stand still and watch your fate because you stand no chance. She then says ‘black, fight back- brown, lay down -white, stand in fright’ – As an observer of the natural world, of people and in particular of children with a curious innocence, I honestly tell you, the ONLY thing that children desperately WANT to learn when all is said and done, is HOW THE WORLD WORKS.

 Not the one that lies to us about economy, media and Business – Profit and productivity nonsense! NO, they want to learn about real world topics. How the stars and planets rotate and shine, how the food grows, how the rivers flow, what lives under the sea, what lives up that tree, where chocolate comes from, how to light a bushfire, how to bore for water, how to bake biscuits and cook stew (just like the one on that photo my canadian best friend was eating) how to communicate with animals, how to make your own medicine, how to sew your own leather boots, how to make candles, how to look after the elderly, how to play a flute, how to hike up a mountain, how to document all the things you saw on the way, how to work in teams, how to problem solve, how to dig a pond, how to sleep outdoors, how to turn all of that into stories and poems, how to read them aloud to your community, how to paint them into pictures and wondrous works of art

Why are we not teaching these subjects in school to our children? Why are they not deemed important? Because to me, they are all that is important

Our next article is going to be on the topic of ‘HEALTH’ and what that means. It might seem obvious, a bit like why we go to school but actually, it’s quite complex and covered with the the veil of ‘disease’ to dominate its entirety but, we are going to go deep into the findings of health and what it means for all of us – IN an ever changing world, it’s essential to BE THE CHANGE

A few pictures of my blonde little snow angel all those years later! See, I did manifest my IRL best friend!