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A Pretty Good Writing Prompt

List 10 simple pleasures.
#1 10 little babies…
A poem is read. A question is asked… What if?
Write for 30 minutes.

I have a sense this morning, first thing as I arise, that the foundation of my personal belief regarding myself and my place in the world has been utter fallacy all along. Still I keep trying to believe that my greatest pleasure, simple to the core, is the time I spend alone in my studio. Alone that is with an entire pantheon of divinity and a zoological cadre of saintly companions: alone, as the lone human.
I see at the top of my list of simple pleasures: 10 little babies. Only once, for a very blessed period of time, have I experienced that pleasure. Three or four days a week for two years I was in the company of 10 babies. For me the changing of a diaper was an act of reverence. I was aware of their awareness of my attitude, our mutual awareness, encouraging my devotion.

Rule #1 To heal the child within…bless the child without.

I was once changing the diaper of a strapping young child of about two and a half years of age. He was destined to become a man of great size and strength. But he was only a child, a baby in diapers. When I did my cautious peek, to see what I had to deal with, he flinched! He fully expected to be hit for pooping in his diaper, he was not yet three! I looked him in the eyes and said, “Oh, no. It’s ok, the diaper is for pooh.” If only once he hears it, at least he hears it once. If only once he feels the tenderness of a woman honored to change his diaper, perhaps choice will be a part of his experience. Somewhere in his psyche being allowed to be a baby will exist and perhaps tenderness will have a chance to bloom in him.
The baby learns like a sponge, absorbing everything equally: every sight, every sound, every emotion, every word uttered in their presence. Women and all child care providers hold the destiny of humanity in their hands, literally. The single most important “ Job “in our world goes disrespected, undervalued and its true importance unaccounted for. The future of humanity is determined by the changing of a diaper, multiplied a billion times. The future of humanity is determined by the cooing or cursing; the respect or neglect a child receives from day one, multiplied a trillion times. To gaze deeply into the eyes of a baby and communicate to them their humanity is our first task. And then to never forget that if they seem to fail us in their humanity, it is we who have failed.

Shar Shk Buk X