So to make it safe for her to experiment, I offer her a blackboard. I thought it would be a good place because she can do what she can, when she can. Sometimes it can stay there to carry on next time or sometimes it can be rubbed out to make room for the next thing. It is very forgiving because it can always go back to a clean slate and it is a very flexible space that grows with her. On a blackboard the child can do her sums to find out what one and one equal together. She can practise writing out songs that matter to her because they echo from long ago.

I think the child’s feelings are making good use of the room that is being given to them. I have to say, they seem delighted to have so much freedom. I can see that wrapped in the Golden Madonna’s spaciousness, the child can allow her writing to go backwards to where she came from. Thenceforth, with the tender nerves of the unadulterated, she can carefully begin to see and say, remember and connect, and find her way back to life.