Stories of Change
Bean and Bubbles Together, mapping the way for the rest of us
Greetings for a visit in a useful new book with its author and illustrator!
As promised in a sneak-peek a couple of weeks back, today’s edition introduces the book Bean and Bubbles Together.
Conceived and written by longtime psychotherapist Dr. Cynthia Anne Hale with help from her young granddaughter Maya, Bean and Bubbles are brought to life with stunning — and fun — images by international award-winning illustrator Larry Vigon.
Caveats: The handful of sampled artwork here is a crude snapshot-glimpse within newShrink tech and skill limits. In the book itself visual and text images are integrally woven together. The gripping effect is a reading experience far beyond-the-sum-of its picture-book parts — for child and grownup alike. Its appeals for children are obvious. But in my view its most-needed reading, lessons and practices are for us grownups.
Bean and Bubbles Together is first in a planned series, Stories of Change. These are the kinds of stories, and a way of experiencing them, that foster resilience through connection. This comes in a time, world and individual lives that are increasingly fractured — and fracturing.
Perhaps not surprisingly this has relevance for both of newShrink’s core concerns:
the multiple dimensions of clinical and depth/soul psychology, and
the events, public figures and issues of the current news-scape.
(On the latter there is more below, under Bean and Bubbles… an antidote? and to come in future editions.)
Today’s first focus belongs with the former — and with peerless depth and breadth of skill, practice, expertise and love that Cynthia herself brings to these topics. Here are links to “Is it true?,” her introduction of Stories of Change. It has a great interactive browse of the book along with ways to purchase and share your experiences with it. As the books and Stories of Change unfold there’ll be future installments of the newsletter, browsable anytime at cynthiaannehale.substack.com and emailed free to subscribers who wish to receive it.
Excerpts of Is it true?” are directly quoted from the author as indicated.
“the beauty of a simple story”
Bean and Bubbles Together, the first book in our "Stories of Change" series of children’s picture books, is about how we can find strength by facing tough times together.
Illustrated by Larry Vigon, the uplifting story follows the journey of two cats who start off as unlikely friends. When everything around them suddenly changes, Bean and Bubbles learn to comfort each other on their difficult journey to a happy ending.
Working on this project has been a journey of creative discovery for us. We've found that the simplicity of children's picture books offers a reflective canvas for emotional experiences, guiding readers imaginatively through stories rather than instructing them
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“What’s happening?”
As Cynthia explains,
The 32-page story of Bean and Bubbles unfolds on a literal level as well as an emotional one.
In my view — even taken separately without considering text (as this clumsy visual sample depicts) — Vigon’s illustrations could be a map to the plot of most children’s-story arcs. They also uncannily depict many of the crises and initiations into the abyss that we adults experience as well, in life as in literature.
The common thread for both is a felt-experience of sudden, often cataclysmic, change. It’s universal, even with changes that are desired and ultimately positive.
From the archetypal standpoints of Jung’s depth psychology, or perhaps the realms of mythologists Eliade or Joseph Campbell, in this “simple children’s story” there’s a hefty bit of the classic journey of the hero, or an abduction into the underworld here.
Cynthia continues:
Along with a lyrical narrative and evocative illustrations, hand-scripted words float on the pages, suggesting feelings that could be reactions to what’s happening. Some of these words are intentionally faint, reminding us that emotions are sometimes hard to name.
Within this book, it’s clear that there are no right or wrong ways to feel about our experiences. Simply by reading the story, we can consider a range of emotional possibilities, without judgment and even with gentle acceptance.
(Again, the crudely added black renditions of some of the more faintly drawn feeling-words from the book are for the sake of a legible example here.)
Throughout the book this combination of simple-plot text and pictures, nudging the basic act of noticing and naming feeling-images that float in the background, packs particular power for the adult reader. Often we adults have been rewarded for, and tend to be all-too-adept at, keeping pesky or contradictory feelings at bay. So often we don’t know how not to, just when they’re most loudly causing painful trouble for ourselves or others and needing attention.
Here is where the book allows both adult and child to gain strength and psychological agility as each gets to play the role of explorer and learner. Sometimes one takes the lead, sometimes the other. The adult is relieved of having to be constant expert authority-figure. The child is empowered, in comforting low-risk space and situation, to develop and practice what it’s like to take the lead, help and guide another (and a grownup one.)
(Back to Cynthia…)
In reading together
We connect with a child in a timeless way when we sit together and read. Page by page, we discover “what’s happening.” With repetition, we begin to sink into the layers of a story. By feeling into how it rings true, we nurture strength and resilience in a child, as well as in ourselves.
She goes on to offer several practical tips on reading with the youngsters in our lives. It can be richly rewarding also to read Bean and Bubbles books with groups of kids, and/or as a resource with one’s mom-group and their children.
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“And yes, it’s true…”
The book, Bean and Bubbles Together, was inspired by the true origin story of my two cats, Selena and Arthur. The clarity of the emotional truth in the arc of their story, however, came from learning about emotional resilience as a psychotherapist. Change is at the heart of each journey, for children and adults.
Here’s more about the authors, from inside the book itself:
Cynthia Anne Hale's writing is based on many years of learning about change from children and adults in psychotherapy. She is a former professor of depth psychology and the author of The Red Place:Transforming Past Traumas through Relationships (2014). www.imaginalways.com.
The stories of Bean and Bubbles were honed with her granddaughter, Maya Olivia Effron, at ages 6 and 7. Maya's ideas and edits were an invaluable part of the creative process.
Larry Vigon is internationally acclaimed for his art and design. Highlights include induction into The Album Cover Hall of Fame (2020) and his art direction and design of C.G. Jung's The Red Book: Liber Novus. Vigon's books, DREAM: A Journal (2005) and (2022) reflect the wide range of his commercial and personal works. www.LarryVigon.com.”
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On the powers of connection…
From previous newShrink editions and topics about author Cynthia’s work, you might recall that she is also a dear friend, reader, fellow depth psychologist, and a favorite former professor from my Pacifica graduate-school program years. Beyond these ties over a decade and a half it’s become a resilient bond, through many changes from health crises and family losses to toughing-out the pandemic as safe-pod-mates actually living in the same NC community.
One of Cynthia’s many super-powers is staying connected across years and a sometimes staggering number of time-zones and even continents. It is a gift for which I am so thankful!
Meanwhile, this weekend is a quick-turnaround, day trip heading to the AVL hills for a birthday visit with granddaughter Miz E. As part of the timing rationale for today’s topic, Bean and Bubbles is a special one of my gifts to her. She likely won’t love that this is only a peek. I won’t be handing it over until we have more time for an unhurried first read, perhaps the next sleepover visit.
I just hope the other very pink, over-the-top Barbie-themed gift might redeem me a little with her on this!
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antidote to today’s news-scape?
Thinking ahead toward current issues in focus for coming news-focused editions, Bean and Bubbles’ emphasis on constructive response to change and building resilience through connection keeps coming to mind. Among widely varied news topics and issues in current focus, from newShrink perspective a broad common thread they all have in place, in effect if not by explicit strategy, is some form of “just-don’t-talk-think-or-act-about-it.”
In so many public and personal situations, this is a power-driven non-solution to real problems and does near-irreversible damage. Without even being too hard-pressed to think of them, here are just a few issues and stories that could use a more Bean and Bubbles mindset and approach — as alternative and antidote:
Moms for Liberty aims, impacts, intended and unintended consequences
DEI efforts under political, financial and academic fire, and the teaching vs non-teaching of complete history and current events
Our “lobsters boiling in a pot” effect: Waking to massive change in our political and cultural landscapes
A plethora of questions and topics around a single, increasingly ubiquitous — and to me utterly haunting word, how it’s being used, (hijacked?), by whom for what purposes. That is, “grooming,” as a pejorative in reference to how we relate to youngsters.
Related to this is the pervasive power of the Internet’s darkest elements and recesses to pick up our adult-human slack in these critical areas.
etc.
Whew. Stay tuned!
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On a closing note today, some things are
spring-ing to life!
(The original iPhone photos of the encore azaleas and pale purple irises were vivid. Filtered through older-but-a-trouper Mac, not so much...)
On Tuesday my photo-memory feed turned up this perennial gem from 2016, four days before grand Miz E’s 4/20 arrival. Pups Hazel and Jesse were born almost exactly 3 months before her.
Ye gods, puppy photos are a shock! Even following strictest feeding protocols these were butterball-babies.
As adults they’re kept a bit lean and hungry to prevent the breed tendency toward obesity and weight-related health problems.
But if that were not a concern, must confess that for me this is the irresistible Labrador look truest to the breed’s working-dog origins. Of course speaking practically, around here we’re a long way south from coastal Canada. Those original mid-19th Century fishing-boat waterdogs burned thousands of calories daily, swimming in icy Newfoundland waters to straighten the nets and retrieve any fish-catch that had eluded them.
Today a few tennis balls retrieved in 80-degree lake water, a 3-mile dry land mosey-walk that takes an hour and a half, are a big workout day for Jesse and Hazel. (These two are actually more active than many…bless their hearts.)
And, that is all I have! Talk to you soon.
🦋💙 tish
… it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
— William Stafford, “A Ritual to Read to Each Other”
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