That
is what I want my 8-year-old son to 'see' and feel when I bring him
here. My role is simply to open up for him new experiences to exercise
his natural sense of wonder and curiosity, and to spread his 'wings'
to think and express, on his own terms, through spontaneous self-discovery.
As parents and teachers, we must recognize how stimulating and liberating
Nature is. It is where children can be truly children. For children
are not birds in cages. And 'fly' they will if we provide them the
creative freedom to do so. Put the world of natural beauty on their
mental map and they will lead the spirited life. With that, they can
be everything they want to be, and be self-driven seekers of knowledge.
The great poet and philosopher, Rabindranath Tagore, once wrote:
"Children have their active subsconscious mind which, like the
tree, has the power to draw food from the surrounding atmosphere.
For them, the atmosphere is a great deal more important than rules
and methods, equipment, text-book lessons ... But in our educational
organisations, we behave like miners, digging only for things and
not like the tillers of the earth, whose work is a perfect collaboration
with nature."
'My Little Candle' speaks about light; the light of sight, vision,
hope, truth and journey. I have dedicated it to my mother who frequently
warned me the trappings of 'dead knowledge' in my schooling days.
That it's not how much I can get from knowledge, but rather, how much
I can make sense of it in the world to make it a better and more beautiful
place to be.
Thanks mum & Mother Nature! |
My
Little Candle
My little candle
does shed
a little circle of light
which guides my way in life
on a migratory flight.
The warmth I feel
within my heart
it stays,
and in the setting suns
on my horizon
does my spirit plays.
Rejoice thus I
within its glow
a flicker on my cheeks does show,
to smile with nature's creations
whose names
I need not know.
So might I remain
forever true and free
from snaring Dead Knowledge,
to hold fast my candle vigil
over the lightness
of my passage.
Whence with age my eyes doth fail
I hope the sparkle within
to keep,
and follow my heart
into the wonders
of a star-spangled sleep.
Joseph Lai
|
wetlands