This Mental Health Awareness Week, running until June 18, the theme is ‘bonding before birth’.
Our work at Embrace spans 0-25 years, recognising the formative role of infancy in building mentally healthy futures for children and families. This principle is reflected on by Embrace Co-Director Professor Helen Milroy in Baby Dreaming, where she weaves together themes of infancy, community and the promise of the future.
Baby Dreaming: The Importance of Children
The infant spirit sleeps snugly in the clouds dreaming about what life may hold for them. Everything needed is held within their crib. The knowledge and experience of ancestral spirits, the gifts of life and creation, the songs and stories to be heard and remembered, and the talents and aspirations to be developed and embraced. Watched over by the earthly and spiritual guardians, the father, mother, grandparents and siblings ever present to ensure the baby’s safety. Each has a special gift to give. Black for strength and endurance, white for purity and innocence, grey for compassion and warmth. The father envelops the family in the spirit of hope and protection. The mother holds the family with kindness and nurturance. The ancestors sit with wisdom and guidance. The children dance with joy and playfulness.
Everyone gazes upon the infant with love.
The serpent birds travel between earth and sky to guide the baby’s journey between worlds at the beginning and end of life. As the day dawns and as the sun sets, the infant dreams about the life that was promised, what should have been, what is yet to come. What would the world be without infant dreams? The promise of the future yet to be realised is a great loss indeed. The world needs infant dreams to remember its own innocence and the need to look after the delicate balance of life. The most important reason of all however, is to be rejuvenated by the immense joy new life brings and the knowledge the future is safe in their soft little hands.
The destiny of the nation will unfold once we can see the potential in all of our children. As parents, as peoples, we are the guardians of the future through infant dreaming. Our greatest assets are our children. Our greatest achievement is bringing about their wellbeing throughout life and development. We can be caught up looking ahead when we should be taking care of the present. Together we must gaze upon the infant with love and understanding, watch the child grow with encouragement and admiration, and stand beside our youth with humility and pride. Above all we must respect their fundamental right to live out their story as it should be. Protected, nurtured yet free to dream dreams and achieve brilliance.
Helen Milroy’s painting Baby Dreaming reminds us of the promise of the future.
© Helen Milroy 2023
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