After one of those starts to the day when everyone’s tempers were frayed and both children seemed to be hell bent on pushing us to the limits, I sat down to write this post, with my own personal thundercloud hovering just above my head.  I remembered a verse from one of my favourite poems by Emily Dickinson:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

I’ve always loved it for being both surprising and utterly relevant.  It struck me that, in their own clumsy way, the Squarehead stories are all about hope.  We’d like to offer our readers a little hope and a smile or two to lighten the day.

These days Margit is using Squarehead and friends in sessions she does at schools to help give children who are going through difficult times a little boost of hope and self-esteem (more on this to come including free lesson plans for any teachers who may be interested).   

If the day is weighing a little heavily on you for whatever reason, here’s the rest of Emily Dickinson’s wonderful poem:

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

(Worked for me, hope it did for you!)