Today I'm taking part in the My Most Beautiful Thing Blogsplash to celebrate inspirations from Fiona Robyn's new novel, The Most Beautiful Thing. Bloggers from all over the world are taking part and writing or posting pictures of their most beautiful things today. Find out more here and see everyone else's blog posts here.

If there’s anything I could contribute to a child from this stream of thoughts, it’s perhaps the  efforts of attempting difficult tasks of speaking to ourselves, (then as he/she grows up), of laying the past down, and stepping out.


  You. My Imaginary You.

I’m going to let us go.
  Took me a while to realize
  I am a person, too.
  Lost in a dream about us
  For more than twenty years
  I pressed myself to stay asleep
  Not waking up wasn’t too bad
  It was all I had,
  Or thought I did.


You and my imaginary you
  Held up the sky
  I was never in any harm
  You shielded me from drugs and destruction
  I just forgot about the trees
  I hardly heard the sea
  Or the swallows, is all.
  Grey clouds meant nothing,
  Nothing more than a smirk.


And all these that I’d neglected
  Are now part of the beautiful treasure
  My heart seeks,
  And finds.
  My heart breathes in,
  And sighs.
  My dear heart has been ready to let us go.
  And we must 
Let go.


You and your real you will be fine.
  Me and my clear me will trust that.
  I shall still think about you
  And worry a bit about you
  But not everyday
  Just sometimes in the remaining lifetime.
  My world was quietly heroic because of you
  I want to keep ‘Thank you’ in my heart
  So it won’t sound like a roaring ‘Goodbye.’


I’m going to let us go.
  But I’m not going to let them die.
  I’m cleaning out my house
  So the smell of grass and soil can swim in.
  So I won’t feed on shadows forever.
  I’m learning to hold up my own sky.
  (Don’t worry, we’ll all be fine.)
  The minute you are ready, too,
  Breathe. See. Love.
  Stay safe. Be healthy.


I’ll see you on our brief sometimes,
  My imaginary you.
  Then I’ll tell you about the new things I’ve done
  Without
  You.
  Don’t be sad.
  Don’t be scared.
  We’ll all be fine,
      
And finally alive.

…

What is your most beautiful thing? (It can be your daughter’s smile, a favourite poem, a bout of silence, climbing a mountain, meeting someone special …) 
I'd love to hear from you. And please remember to check out Fiona's book: 
The Most Beautiful Thing 

I am tremendously honoured to be interviewed on The Secret DMS Files of Fairday Morrow . Two questions in particular set me thinking deep and clear. 

Deep
As the sea,
Clear
As the whistles
From the big rain tree.

I'm echoing one of their fabulous questions here. Hope to hear your answer on this:
What is one thing that you truly enjoy and have no understanding of why? (For instance, the color of moss, the sound of running water, a strip of silk, something that you always find special or magical.) 


See you over on Fairday Morrow's blog!

Have a great weekend ahead.

{*I'll be writing a special post on 'The Most Beautiful Thing' next Tuesday. Hope you check back again soon.  ❤ }

Love,
Claudine

A woman changes her mind as quickly as a sparrow flaps its wings. Ever since learning from YA author, Kelly Hashway, that this Friday is Friday the 13th, I'd been bent on writing a post on good luck-poor luck. (Featuring a brilliant picture book on this theme, too, of course.) For four days, I was sure I'd be writing on that.

Up till two hours ago. After hearing a familiar Japanese song from an animated adventure-fantasy classic, Spirited Away, I gave up everything else. 
                                                                                            ...

Spirited Away holds one of the greatest influence in storytelling & characters for me even though it's not a book. And even though it has been a decade since its release. Every time I need a magical pick-me-up, this is one of the stories I turn to.

Plot
10-year-old Chihiro and her parents were on their way to their new place when they passed by an old tunnel. Reluctantly following her curious parents, Chihiro walked into what seemed like an abandoned amusement park. There were, strangely, piping hot food at stalls nobody owned. Chihiro's hungry parents sat down to eat while Chihiro wandered on.

When she came upon a bath house, she met a boy about her age. He was stunned to see her and warned she had to leave before nightfall. 

And night did fall almost immediately.

Spirits swarmed out and filled the town. Chihiro ran back to her parents only to find they had been turned into pigs.

Trapped in this spirits' world, Chihiro had to find a way to survive, to hold on to her identity, and to save her parents.

                                                                                         ...

Spirited Away is a Ghibli Studio production written and directed by the golden-talented Hayao Miyazaki. Here's what he said about Chihiro:

"I created a heroine who is an ordinary girl, someone with whom the audience can sympathize, someone about whom they can say, "Yes, it's like that." It's very important to make it plain and unexaggerated. Starting with that, it's not a story in which the characters grow up, but a story in which they draw on something already inside them, brought out by the particular circumstances... I wanted to tell such a story in this movie. I want my young friends to live like that, and I think they, too, have such a wish." 

(Source: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/sen.html) 

                                                                                     ...

Memorable Characters:
Chihiro ~ brave and loyal

Haku ~ the boy she met at the bath house, who was actually a dragon working for the dominant witch

Yubaba ~ the dominant witch who owned the bath house and 'collected' Chihiro's name

Kamajii ~ a grandfatherly man/creature with six arms who worked in the boiler room of the bath house. A group of sootballs worked for him.
 
No-Face ~ a spirit that followed Chihiro around

And others (a gigantic baby, Yubaba's twin sister, Chihiro's roommate ...)

                                                                                         ...

There have been other Ghibli Studio productions since, but none has come close to being as authentic, imaginative and stirring as this. There have been other international animated films since, but none has been quite as intimate as this. Spirited Away is the fantasy adventure girls wish they have. 
 
Have you watched Spirited Away? (If you haven't,  I hope you'd give this classic a chance. I haven't met or heard of anyone who has seen this regret watching it.)

Enjoy the trailer! 

{*Oh, and I do mean to thank blogger-friends who've presented our blog with pretty awards. I may not be writing posts outside the Children's Story/Reading/Books genre, but I'm still deeply grateful to all who thought of us when it comes to awards. So thank you, Kelly, Barbara, Katrina & Taurean!}