“Abbe, is God Real?” An Inner Child’s View of God

I once determined that I didn’t need to do inner child work—I felt superior to it—and I was so wrong in my judgment. To understand my enthusiasm now requires looking back with clarity. What I find is that the information that could have guided me came long after it was needed.

I wondered about the possibility of having been told as a girl that: having one friend, reading alone with my door closed, watching clouds from the beech tree, checking on the baby cucumbers—all showed that I was more of an inner girl than an outer one. What if I’d been asked if I really liked what I was doing, and if so, why? And if not, what might I like to try? And for those activities thought important for me, if their importance had been explained in a way that made me really want to do my very best. Might I have found what I love sooner?

What if when studying French, I had told my professor that I wanted to talk in French—not read literature, as my courses were advanced. I wasn’t at ease. I didn’t interpret well, and good grades reflected taking notes, which misled to thinking that I was in the right program. For what I wanted I might have been encouraged to go to France for a semester and, meanwhile, explore other studies that I had the right abilities and mind for—ones that I would truly love regardless of my grades.

Many years later I learned that I am an introvert, and only recently understood that I am not an intellectual. I am intelligent and a reader, but my mind is not suited to deciphering complex sentence structures of reference-rich content.

In my counseling practice, near the end of my second year I was shown an inner child book that, due to a client’s strong interest, I took home, flipped through with excitement, and was able to say that I could easily facilitate a group. The pages were filled with dialogs and drawings done in inner child workshops, with sufficient explanations between the reproductions*. It was different from my previous experience of a book by a well-known author that talked about the inner child but didn’t connect with her or him as this book did.

With my interest netted, I lead groups through activities that were wonderful for the flourishing of my creative nature and, prompted by my enthusiasm, the members all easily found themselves successful too at recovering their inner child.

When I moved to India I brought some of Abbe's and my favorite drawings and dialogs that had recovered important aspects of me. In each, I wrote to Abbe with my right hand, and she answered by my left.

Abbe,

Is God real?

       Dear Mumsie,

             How silly of you to ask. Can you make the bird

             fly the cricket sing, the chocolate in the

             chocolate milk. Did you design me as your baby. Oh Mumsie, just
             breathe and you will know God is real.

             Love you

             Abbe

My realization is, “Among our words about God are the blissfully happy words of our inner, spiritual child just waiting to be recovered from our subconscious.”

* Recovery of Your Inner Child: The Highly Acclaimed Method For Liberating Your Inner Self, Lucia Capacchione