My Bird Has Come Home

About the Book

My Bird Has Come Home is Rashani R¨¦a¡¯s first delightful book, created when she was eight, nine and ten years old. We already see her intuitive sense of shibui¨Dthat elusive quality, which gives as much emphasis to emptiness and space as to form and content. This budding sense of shibui became deeply embedded in her art collages circulating the world as greeting cards, her retreat sanctuaries and in her life. The young Rashani invites us into the simple, direct awareness from which the greatest gifts are found. Truly beautiful in their simplicity, these offerings from Rashani's formative years are magical gateways through a child's eyes into the sacredness of life and its infinite beauty. This tender book can bring delight to all ages encouraging us to reconnect with our beloved earth and look again with innocent hearts at the miracles hidden under leaves and in a bird taking flight.

My Bird Has Come Home inspires me to take paintbrushes and paint into nature with my children and see with renewed eyes the many miracles waiting to be found. Rashani's early poems and sumi-e brush paintings give me a glimpse of what is possible when children are given freedom to live in their true nature of wonder and reverence.

           ¨CJanette Daily, fifth grade teacher

I remember growing up with my childhood friend, Rashani, exploring and discovering nature together. She also was encouraged to seriously explore her creative gifts for poetry and art. As a school administrator for seventeen years in public and independent schools, I wish every child were given the time and encouragement to observe and interpret his or her world the same way. Rashani's book of illustrated poems can inspire children, teachers and schools to establish the environment for artistic discovery and expression. ¨CWendy Feltham, elementary school principal May every library of every English speaking school obtain a copy of this sweet and inspiring book! Children need to be reminded to see the beauty in nature and to deepen their relationship with ordinary miracles. ¨CMabel Wilson, public school librarian Earth, sky, sun, water, waving fields of oat grass, rich smells of sun-warmed plants, gurgling rocky creeks, snakes, hawks, dogs, cats, horses, raccoons, squirrels, song birds, quail, geese . . . and the wild freedom to explore. In reading Rashani¡¯s poems, I have a visceral remembering of the magical place where she and I grew up. I am pleased that she can share through her innocent words this simple, sacred connectedness with nature. May her poems and art inspire others to discover their own wilderness and creativity. ¨CElizabeth Tanner Roberts, counselor/artist/friend

About the Author

Rashani Réa, born as Tori Harris, began writing poetry at the age of seven and was published four years later. She was born in Northern California where she spent the first fifteen years of her life and began teaching art when she moved to the east coast with her family a year later. Raised with the motto “freedom is discipline,” her childhood was an immersion in artistic explorations and an ongoing inquiry into the nature of beauty. Inspired by Martin L. King Jr. and Joan Baez, Rashani was awakened to the impact of art in social change and became an impassioned social activist at the age of twelve. Her other books include Beyond Brokenness and The Unfurling of an Artist.