In reflection...

It’s when I listened to my partner read the book out loud that I noticed that the words and images don’t match on several of the pages. For example, I don’t see bird barrettes in Sylvia’s hair, nor birds on her pants or dresses. She doesn’t wear pants in any illustration. - anonymous

I wonder what it means to take off one's costume. - anonymous

I'm more consciously making connections. I saw the feathers of the boy's costume as rain. Straight lines in a pattern. I'm thinking about interconnection. - anonymous

The part of the boy that is a bird costume is his head. Ha! The thinking mind busy at work making up stories. Making up stories is costume building. - anonymous

I repeated things my partner already said. My listening skills can improve a lot. - anonymous

I noticed that I was so eager for my turn to say what I see that I almost tripped over my Talk + Listen partner's words. - Susan

This is a little boy’s dreams and I wonder what happened to mine and what my dreams are and I don’t know if I have any. I don’t know there’s such a fine line between contentedness and complacency. I could for the rest of my life sit in a room with my partner and feel content but I think to an extent I think we’ve allowed some of the bigger dreams we used to have to get away because it’s easy and comfortable and wonderful to be with each other and I think we haven’t focused on achieving other things because we’re content to be and it’s equal parts of nice and really horrible. - anonymous

The part that really gets me, the big feeling is that this book is about being who I am. When Sylvia sees a bird she sees a bird. When she sees the boy at the end, she sees who he is. She sees him! - anonymous

Those drawn lines in the corner of a page at the end of the book say to me that in the end, bird boy gains a larger understanding indicated by lines, which to me represent insight as a metaphor of flight. - anonymous

The whole thing in my relationship is to show all of me. Not just in a relationship. But as I read this book with you, the big feeling I have is how this book is also about my relationship with experience and to be in it and how hard it is to do that. To be here right now. And when I saw that drawing of him in the costume he looked so silly, so cute, so funny. I liked him. I liked him at that moment especially because I got to see myself when I'm distracted and not present. That feeling of seeing him as me and being able to laugh makes me happy. - anonymous

Image: Reading The Day I Became A Bird by Ingrid Chabbert. Raúl Nieto Guridi (Illustrator)