Caring for the Soul

A children’s story about the effects of angry and the importance of opening and sharing feelings.

Yana the angry strawberry is always angry.
She is angry in the morning.
She is angry in the daytime. She is even angry in the evening.
Yana the angry strawberry is always angry.
Yana is angry around her family and she is always angry around her friends.
She is also angry when she all by herself. She is just a very angry strawberry.
When Yana doesn’t get what she wants she gets really angry.
And when Yana gets really angry, she gets really red and really hot!

Why is Yana always angry? Her mother asked.
Yana when you are angry in the morning, in the daytime and in the evening you have no time for anything else.
You have no time to play with your friends, you have no time to be with your family.
When you are angry all the time, none of the other strawberries want to be around you.

Yana the angry strawberry was so angry by what her mother said that she stormed off and went into the field by herself.
She was all alone with nobody to be angry at. So she began to think.
And she thought all day long.
At the end of the day she returned home and told her mom why she was so angry.
Yana then felt much better and was no longer known as Yana the Angry Strawberry.

The End

Children are curious and love to find ways to express themselves.  Art is one form in which they can do so.  Art allows a child to naturally voice what they are experiencing.  What your child creates in their artwork is more than just a blob.  It perhaps is a feeling, a word, an action, a train of thought or a desire.  So take the time to listen to your child through experiencing their art world with them.  Open your mind and allow yourself to enter your child’s mind.  For it is in their art that they speak.  It is in your child’s creations that their experiences reside.

Through art children have the freedom to be themselves.  They are without limits or the constraints of the real world.  Art allows one to delve into their self to experience their creative side thus strengthening ones’ self confidence.  So when you think that your child is simply misbehaving when they draw on the walls, look at the circumstances through their eyes.  Think how they might just be trying to find a bigger canvas to express their inner feelings and creativity.  By embracing your child’s art you are embracing your child. Take the time to listen with your eyes