The birth of a child is a blooming of hope for both parents and community. This collection of more than 200 poems, quotations, and readings has been assembled by Edward Searl. A minister for 27 years, Searl says that these meditations are "culled from antiquity and from our contemporary world, written and spoken by parents, priest, and poets — the famous and the unknown — these passages are meant to inspire, to caution and to shore us up for the great responsibility we have to care for and nurture all children."
The paperback is divided into these sections: Full of Wonder, Here Under My Heart, Roots and Wings, All You of the Heavens, and The Child's Name Is All Children. Here are a few examples of the material:
Give Us the Child
Give us the child who lives within —
— the child who trusts,
— the child who imagines,
— the child who sings,
— the child who receives without reservation,
— the child who gives without judgment.
Give us a child's eyes, that we may receive the beauty and freshness of this day like a sunrise;
Give us a child's ears, that we may hear the music of mythical times;
Give us a child's heart, that we may be filled with wonder and delight;
Give us a child's faith, that we may be cured of our cynicism;
Give us the spirit of a child, who is not afraid to need; who is not afraid to love. Amen.
Sarah York in Into the Wilderness
Kids:
They dance before they learn
there is anything that isn't music.
William Stafford in Learning to Live In This World
