This morning I drifted over to my neighbour to see what she had on offer at her garage sale. I scored a couple of good things for the grandsons: a wooden set of dominoes (not black), a globe showing the countries of the world, and a pack of Uno cards. Those last two I'll put away for use further down the road.
As I arrived, a three year-old boy from across the street whom I've never spoken to before came up to me.
He said, "I saw a spider in a movie. It was as big as your head."
I replied, "Well, I've seen lots of spiders in my life and I can tell you I've never come across one that's bigger than this." And I made a circle with my thumbs and forefingers, a little smaller than my palm.
Back at home, I got to thinking. There were a couple of issues there, the first being kind of connected to my last post. i.e. didn't the parents think he might be scared when they exposed him to the image of that giant spider? Maybe they hadn't taken the time/trouble to view that movie first?
And the second thing I asked myself was "Why did he straight away share this with me?"
For comfort and reassurance, I presume.
Some years ago, I was staying at a friend's cottage when her five-year-old daughter came to visit. It was the first time I'd met her. She came up to me and she said, "You have magic powers."
More than somewhat taken aback, I denied it (which was stupid, actually). "Yes you have," she insisted. "I can see them."
I'm still wondering what exactly she could see.
The point of my recounting this small anecdote is not so much to give myself some credibility, but more to illustrate that small children are very likely to perceive much more than we do. And this is where I think evolution comes into play.
I don't think we're likely to evolve any further on the physical level... well, maybe the brain, but who knows? No, to me, where evolution is really happening is on the level of our consciousness, and you could call this the soul-spiritual level.
If you read Stephanie Meyer's 'Twilight', you'll know that each of the vampires had different psychic gifts. This is a trope I see more and more in popular fiction today, especially when it comes to young adult books. Because I'm an author myself, I keep an eye on what's going on in these areas. What I'm also noting is that there's a great deal about the world of fairies, or rather, the fae. As in the old folk tales, these beings are not always benevolent. But to me all this indicates that we're becoming more and more of the 'unseen' world.
So, to get to the point of this post, I'd like to suggest you keep open to the idea that your children will be more evolved than you, and are likely to have perceptions that are beyond your grasp. Do them a favour, and don't deny them, as I did to that little 5 year old.
