Tag: comfort

📚NEW SERIES RELEASE 📖

On By Mahvash K. M.In BookReading, bookworm, childrensbooks, kidlit, Kidsbooks, verse, womenwriters, writingLeave a comment

THE HEALING SERIES 👧🏻👦🏽❤️‍🩹

Dear all,

I’m happy to introduce my new Healing Series for children ages 6 to 10. This has been a labour of love and grew into the current 4-book series when friends and family spoke of a vacuum in the children’s literature space – there were very few books which allowed painful, stressful events in the child’s life to be softened in the gentle flow of story-telling.

The Healing Series includes coping with:

  • Bullying
  • Suddenly becoming an older sibling to a new brother or sister
  • The loss of a parent (will be in stores in May 2025)
  • Parents’ separation (will be in stores in May 2025)

Traumatic experiences can initiate strong emotions and physical reactions that can persist long after the event. Children may feel terror, helplessness, agitation or fear as well as physiological reactions such as heart pounding, vomiting, or loss of bowel or bladder control. It is critical to identify when a child is feeling deep seated discomfort which they are not able to verbalize. Other overt behavioural signs and symptoms include acting out or withdrawing, nightmares, physical ailments, difficulty concentrating, clingy/separation anxiety, crying frequently, self destructive behaviour, academic struggles and loss of appetite. These are the most common, but the whole gamut of emotional and behavioral symptoms can be wide and varied. Basically, any behaviour that is not normal for the child should be considered a signal for help.

Consider these books, then, as a way of starting conversations with your child about events and circumstance that may be distressing them. Every story in this collection gently holds the child’s hand and helps them navigate the confusing, painful and daunting times that they find themselves in.

In our beautiful but imperfect world, I hope that these books through the magic of story-telling in the safe haven of home and family, help to protect and nurture the mental and emotional wellbeing of our children 🌸.

SRI LANKA: The books are currently available in most bookstores across the island
PAKISTAN: The books will be available at Liberty Books, Paramount Books and the London Book Company in a couple of months.
KOBO: Will be available on KOBO by the end of April 2025.

VERSE | THINKING OF YOU

On By Mahvash K. M.In hope, poetry, serenity, verse, womenwriters, writingLeave a comment 
Hold my hand when you feel lost
I’m no prophet, no celestial guide
But I can keep your hand in mine
Sit with you by your side

Hold my hand when hope has dimmed
I can’t move mountains nor the seas
But I can be with you a while 
For you to feel some peace

Hold my hand when your tread is heavy 
I’m not Atlas, I can’t displace
The burden off your weary shoulders
But I can carry it with you a pace

Hold my hand when life is joyless
I can’t delight you nor beguile
But I can try to ease your ache
Give your face a little smile 

Hold my hand and let me try
To soothe your heavy heart a bit
Life’s ups and downs will keep going round 
But when you want, with you I’ll sit
AI generated

VERSE | HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAREST ONE 🌺

On By Mahvash K. M.In Nostalgic musings, poetry, verse, writingLeave a comment 
There is a little photograph 
That sits upon my shelf 
In its monochromatic hues it holds
My world in its sweet self 

A vision sits inside the frame 
A smile lights up her face 
She’s looking out from beaming eyes 
In another time and place 

Even as I look at her 
She reaches inside my heart 
Pulling at blue-purple strings 
Of memories tender and soft

I can almost feel the comforting 
Gentleness of her hand
It lies there like a lilly 
On the railing where she stands 

I wish sometimes for magic 
An alchemy of the souls 
for a few quicksilver moments 
Your beautiful hands to hold 

Then I close my eyes and reach 
For your vital warmth once more 
I’m wrapped up in nostalgia 
For times and places from before 

Your photo sits on my shelf, Mama 
It’s full of your love and grace
On most days I just reach within 
And you hold me in your loving embrace.

VERSE | THE BRICK-FACED HOUSE

On By Mahvash K. M.In Joy, poetry, verse, womenwriters, writing4 Comments 
The morning glow touched its face
The brick-faced house in the street 
It stretched out in the morning rays 
Hide’n’seek with some it played 
Its favourite morning treat

In the bedroom facing the east 
I lay in sleep’s placid arms
The sun wore its morning beam 
As it shone into my dawn time dreams 
Oblivious of my late alarm 

The house shook out its paint and bricks
Its nooks and crannies too 
The mynah was already collecting twigs
To fix its nest, repair the rips
From last night’s stormy brew

The day wore on, the house filled up
With daytime smells and sounds
It shook and shimmered, belched and laughed
As it held us all in its matronly arms 
Safe in its blessed compound

Evening came and with it the skies
Turned a beautiful rosy pink 
T-41 too flushed with delight 
Its terracotta facade catching the light
As it watched the twilight sink

The resident crickets began to perform
Their night time symphony
The house sighed softly gathering its form
It seemed like tonight would bring another storm 
But inside its walls was warmth and sleep.

VERSE | HEALING

On By Mahvash K. M.In poetry, serenity, verse, womenwriters, writingLeave a comment 
She looks down at the empty page 
Something is on her mind 
A plot, a verse for better or worse 
For the rest, a pithy line 

But nothing stirs into rank and file 
For her to string together 
The words and phrases spin like crazy 
She just can’t find the tether 

“I looked at him in puzzlement…”
No today she couldn’t go there 
“She sat serene and beautiful
With a magnolia in her hair…”

She felt herself choke a little 
She couldn’t walk there either 
In sepia-toned dreams is where
She felt happiest seeing her 

A cup of tea, a pastry 
That sublime combination
Surely she could muster up 
Something for that occasion 

But her thoughts were far away 
They were looking at something else 
The woman poised upon her page 
Needed healing herself 

So they had set up a little storm 
In the space of her tearing mind 
Whirling, swirling round and round 
Until the pain was left behind 

Then to her blue-stung heart they went 
To gently numb the precious space
Odes to life’s ripple and swell 
Could wait for another day.

VERSE | IN THE ‘EAT OF THE NIGHT

On By Mahvash K. M.In food, Foot in the Mouth, poetry, verse, writing3 Comments 
This week I said that I’d be good 
I’d stay off carbs and meat 
I’d focus on healthful juices  
And on salads. What a treat!

I hope you read the sarcasm 
In the verse above this one 
Even then, didn’t mean to offend
Tomatoes, lettuce and onions 

But the intermittent fasting 
From midnight to noon next day 
Did me in, up to my chin 
Couldn’t keep the carbs at bay!

And so my resolutions of
A healthy body and mind 
They just choked, went up in smoke 
My force of will became unkind 

I ended up inviting in 
A thousand extra calories
But dang! I’m quite determined that
Tomorrow I’ll eat only sunflower seeds 

So if you feel like you’ve lost
The battle of the bulge
On good days, be resolute  
On bad ones, go on and munch

Let the heart guide you along 
The mind is like Cruella*
No one needs a conscience deep 
When the belly gods do yell-a!
* Cruella de Vil: a wicked character from Dodie Smith's 1956 novel “The Hundred and One Dalmatians”.