I have to admit that I've probably never grown up really. It feels like my inner child is constantly walking by my side and talking to me. She often pulls my sleeve and shows me something amazing around us with her little hand. The child urges me to open my ears - and most of all, my heart - to quiet voices, to a speech that does not make a noise but whispers shyly.
The child in me still remembers how I felt half a century ago. What delighted or surprised me then, what made me wonder? Who was there to help me? To whom could I trust? It’s easy to time travel back to those experiences. I don’t even need to close my eyes; childhood light is so bright.
In my childhood, the world entered our living rooms via television. Suddenly, that little box showed us the world events more or less online, including some of the horrors that other children in the world experienced. My own modest life felt luxurious compared to what I saw in the news and documentaries — children starving, children in war.
I kept on thinking if there was anything I could do. It wasn't much. At Sunday School, I saw photos from the mission fields and began planning that I should probably go to those villages as well. I planned to teach other children to read, as I already could, and leave the digging of the wells into dry land to those with stronger arms.
Gradually, I made some own money by working as an instructor for small children’s hobbies or as a tutor for those with difficulties at school. In a good time for every Christmas, I got a UNICEF Christmas card brochure. It explained how I could buy some cards, and the money would be directed to benefit the lives of children in need. I was counting how many school books or pencils the organization could donate using my money. Not very many.
Every Christmas, after careful consideration, I ordered one or two packages of UNICED cards. I appreciated each card a lot and thought carefully to whom I would send it. My correspondence with school children from various parts of the world had gradually grown to twenty. Through the letters of these pen friends, I learned a lot about living in various countries around the globe.
One of my pen friends was a deaf boy from the Eritrean region of Ethiopia. He had been lucky enough to enter into a school for deaf children, and the studies were proceeding well. Then the Civil War spread to his home region, and I received no more answers to my letters. For a long time, I kept the photograph of this skinny, gently smiling boy and wondered how he was. Did he survive, finish school, start a family? He would have been able to do that, too, if the adults had acted with reason and heart.
As an adult, I’m thinking of the children of the world again from a new perspective. In the end, I did not become a missionary, an international aid worker, or a pediatrician. Instead, I finally became a Doctor in Law and a children’s author, actually not a bad combination at all. In this way, I try to use all my knowledge and skills to make the world a better and safer place for children.
One person cannot influence much, but that is no excuse for not to try. I believe that everybody can do something, my way is to use words, both spoken and written. So far, I have published some thirty-five children's books, with some very delicate and problematic issues, too. Those subjects cannot be avoided, but they have to be handled in a loving way to help and encourage children. As I write these stories, my inner child is sitting close to me. She looks at me with honest eyes and wonders what is going on around her. I try to answer with love, as an adult to whom this child can trust.
This inner child within us is a messenger and guide who promotes deep humanity and a natural connection with other people. At best, the child’s view of the world is beautiful and hopeful. The little explorer is still at the beginning of everything and ready to rejoice the treasures of life with the others.
I challenge you to look in the mirror to your own eyes and try to see that little child again. Take the little one as a companion to help you see the world with fresh eyes once more.
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