Page 86 - Spirit - A Journey Through Embodiment

and animals that talk. This may be fantasy for the adult but is
a memory of reality to the child. By these stories the child will
be more comfortable about where it is going, especially
remembering how far it has come.

Perhaps the key word for the three year old child is the word
resignation, at this stage they are resigned to their future as
they see it. On a conscious level they have no cognisance of
what future is but on a deeper conscious level they do, not
necessarily in terms of events but more as a feeling. This
feeling can be either interpreted as a foreboding or as an
invitation to adventure. In either case it will be felt as fear.
This fear will need the child to have constant reassurance
from its adults. The law of cause and effect can be taught at
this stage. Though the child is only halfway to achieving the
"age of reason" they are still reasonable, perhaps even more
reasonable that their adult carers. Many adults still bear the
scars of this period in their own lives and though the surface
has healed the hurt and pain is still sealed in, secretly
undermining the natural confidence of adulthood. How then
can this adult instil confidence in a child? In short they can't.
The child is astute and will see through any mirage that the
adult might try and create. This is what we mean when we say
that children can teach us much while they in turn are learning
for themselves. We have a tendency to teach our children the
same techniques we used to help us survive in a difficult
situations in our childhood. The fact that these difficulties still
remain within us unhealed, just covered over and concealed,
undermine us when we find a child confront us under similar