Mindfulness Through The Eyes Of A Child
Thursday, August 13, 2015 17:51
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One of my favourite books as a child was one entitled The Magic Shell. In many ways this book was like another one in my collection—The Red Balloon—in that the book consisted primarily of black-and-white photographs. Its text was minimal. The photos told the story, and they were all taken by the author herself, Nadine Amadio (1929-2009).
Nadine Amadio, who was once married to the famed Australian jazz musician Ray Price, came from a very artistic and musical family. She was an Australian writer, photographer and producer with her works and interests encompassing fiction, biography, editing, painting and scriptwriting for films and documentaries. In 1976 Ms Amadio received a New Writers Fellowship from the Literature Board of the Australia Council. (To be technical, Ms Amadio was hardly a ‘new writer’ by 1976, for she had already authored and published a number of books.) For many years Ms Amadio collaborated with the distinguished Australian painter Charles Blackman who was a close friend of hers.
The Magic Shell is a book of 60-odd photos and captions photographed, written and arranged by Ms Amadio. The photographs depict a Sydney of the late 1950s, both the central business district itself and the northern beaches of Sydney (where I now live), in particular, Palm Beach. There are also photos of ‘the bush’, that is, country New South Wales. All the photos freeze in time and space an era, and a place, that for the most part have gone. Ditto The Red Balloon.
The Magic Shell is about a small boy’s ‘magical’ journey from the country (where he lives on a farm), through Sydney city, to the wonder of the sea on Sydney’s northern beaches.
On the inside front cover, the author has written:
This is Sydney. …
It is a big city full of tall, new buildings towering upwards and quaint old buildings nestling in their long familiar places. Like all big cities, it is filled with people—the rich and the poor, the seeing and the unseeing. And there is always something special to be seen in this city: perhaps it is the harbor, edged by gardens and coves, docks and ships; perhaps the narrow, straggling streets, packed with surprises; or maybe the long golden arms of beaches stretching to the north and the south. Many strange and enchanted things have been known to happen in this city. And sometimes there comes a stranger who, especially if he is very young, sees it for the first time and is filled with wonder. …
Yes, life is full of ‘strange and enchanted things’, if only we would experience them as such. Even the seemingly drab, commonplace and familiar can be, and in truth are, a source of great wonder and enchantment. Children are expert at seeing this. Sadly, adults are not. Somehow, in growing up—in many ways I hate those words—most of us lose our capacity to appreciate the wonder and mystery of life. We must become like a ‘stranger’ if we are to see things as if ‘for the first time’ and ‘filled with wonder’. As one great teacher expressed it some 2,000 or more years ago, we must ‘change and become like little children’ (Mt 18:3 [NIV]).
While at the beach Mark, the boy in the story, explored the rocks by the water’s edge and the rock pools:
The rocks were full of mysterious little pools. Tiny fish were swimming around amongst the bright pebbles, starfish and large spiky shapes that reminded Mark of porcupines. Every pool had new and exciting things to discover and Mark ran eagerly from pool to pool, wondering what he’d find next. He hoped he might find his magic shell but he only found small ones with shellfish still living inside.
In due course Mark found that elusive ‘magic’ shell—a ‘great shining shell’. He put the shell to his ear and ‘the sea gave him her own song.’ ‘Now he would have it to listen to always. It was indeed a magic shell.’
I love this book as a child, and, now 60, I still have it. I will not part with it. The book is not a literary masterpiece–it doesn’t purport to be one—but it does has an unmistakable charm and quaintness. As I re-read the book this morning it occurred to me that Ms Amadio had captured, both in her photos and text, the essence of mindfulness, not to mention the essence of childhood as well. Yes, the author captured that wonderful ability, which we all need, to see things as they really are, to appreciate events and occurrences, and the small things of life, as they are unfolding. Such is the ‘magic’ of life. It is nothing supernatural. It is something very natural—so natural that we take it for granted and fail to see it. The wonder and mystery of life lies in its very ephemerality and transience. The fact that one day we will lose it all—whatever ‘it’ may be—makes life all that more special.
Life is indeed filled with wonder and awe. The child, so it seems, is intuitively mindful. In becoming adults we were taught—conditioned—to analyse, criticise, judge, compare and interpret. In so doing, we lost much of our innate ability to see and experience things as they actually happen. That is a very sad thing. The regular practice mindfulness enables us to regain that childlike ability to see things for the first time and filled with wonder.
May you find your ‘magic’ shell today.
The photos in this post are from the book The Magic Shell
(Sydney: Ure Smith Pty Limited, 1958). Copyright © The Estate of the Late Nadine Amadio. All rights reserved.
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Source: http://ianellis-jones.blogspot.com/2015/08/mindfulness-through-eyes-of-child.html
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