To-day's quote

"If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want one hundred years of prosperity, grow people."

Harvey Mackay

To wash a child

The following is, in a sense, a double theft. Indeed, I will be using a poem by Pablo Neruda. A poem I recently found on Ana Johnson's great website: www.yummymummymanifesto.com.
I can't resist, however, it's such a beautiful poem. Last Friday I saw my friend and colleague Madeleine who works as a conference interpreter and translator and who recently became a mother. She showed me wonderful pictures of her son Xavier, one of them in a bath. It triggered powerful memories of the slippery body of my son Thomas when I bathed him, quite a long while ago now. As another friend and colleague, Karin, said 'bathing a child appeals to something very primitive and meaningful within a woman's heart'. Anyhow, there is no chance in hell I will ever be able to express these things the way Pablo Neruda did, so I will let him do the 'talking' for now:

TO WASH A CHILD
by Pablo Neruda
Only the most ancient love on earth
will wash and comb the statue of the children,
straighten the feet and knees.
The water rises, the soap slithers,
and the pure body comes up to breathe
the air of flowers and motherhood.
Oh, the sharp watchfulness,
the sweet deception,
the lukewarm struggle!
Now the hair is a tangled
pelt criscrossed by charcoal,
by sawdust and oil,
soot, wiring, crabs,
until love, in its patience,
sets up buckets and sponges,
combs and towels,
and, out of scrubbing and combing, amber,
primal scrupulousness, jasmines,
has emerged the child, newer still,
running from the mother’s arms
to clamber again on its cyclone,
go looking for mud, oil, urine and ink,
hurt itself, roll about on the stones.
Thurs, newly washed, the child springs into life,
for later, it will have time for nothing more
than keeping clean, but with the life lacking.

New mom of the month

There is a new mom of the month on the business and diapers site.
www.businessanddiapers.com

Her name is Mireille Geus, she is a writer of children's books, has won several impressive awards and prices for her work and also teaches writing to adults.

By the way, Mireille does not work at home, although many writers do. Read more about her and her work on the site www.businessanddiapers.com, free downloads.

To-day's quote

HE WHO DOES NOT OBEY HIMSELF IS RULED BY OTEHRS.

Dr Phil

A friend of mine, publisher Marieke Hoogwout (of publishing agency REUNION in the Netherlands) recently pointed out something Dr Phil had said to a mother. It stuck to my mind: "if you love your children, take care of their mother".

Worth remembering...

Quote of the day

"Each human being is born three times. Once from his father, once from his mother, and once from himself" (Persian wisdom).

New mom of the month

To-day is All Saints Day, a day that has been described in Malcom Lowry's book Under the Volcano in a particularly haunting way. A day for special thoughts for loved ones who passed away. A day for visiting graveyards.

On a somewhat lighter note it it also quite simply the first day of a new month, which is why there is a new 'mom of the month'. This time it's Belinda Fallaux, mother of two and freelance journalist. She considers the combination of freelancing and motherhood to be ideal. I tend to agree with her (on a part time basis...).

Have a look at www.businessanddiapers.com, both at the home page and the download section, to find out more about Belinda, how she juggles play dates and deadlines.

Do you want to be father of mother of the month? Please contact met at vertaalslag@planet.nl