Books
Several of the soundmakers in this book are ones that my one year old Joel has found scary. I decided to intersperse them with soundmakers that he likes and put them all in this book of sounds.
At first, though, I had a different idea instead. I was thinking that I'd make a book about things that scare us...especially scary things that others have a hard time seeing why we're scared of them and sometimes try to tell us that we shouldn't be scared of them. I wanted to write a book that said it's OK to be scared. I wanted the book to be an invitation to have others join me in exploring ways to hold a safe space for people to have whatever feelings they are feeling.
This book of scary things that I had in mind was going to include a picture of a lion flower pot that I painted when I was a kid. I think it was its eyes that my little sister Kaiann found scary, so we usually had the lion facing out the window so that we were looking at its tail instead. Kaiann's place at our dinner table had her facing the lion, and I would sometimes test to see if she would notice if I turned the lion to face her. She always did.
I'm hoping that, now that I'm more grown up, I'll be able to be more respectful of where people are at with facing their lions and more supportive of how they are feeling...and...if and when they want to, be able to be there for them in their process of facing the scary side of the lion.
Joel seems to be gradually becoming less scared of and more curious about the soundmakers that he has found scary. Perhaps this book can provide him with a way to face these lions at his own pace.
- What Did You Find? - A simple kid's book that I was inspired to put together because I knew the pictures would be easy to generate. It was inspired by something I found myself saying to Joel one day when he started playing with some socks that were laying on the floor.
