Flourishing consists of positive emotion, meaning, engagement, healthy relationships, and accomplishment – the success of a life well lived. The acronym is “PERMA”. This is the characterizing feature of Nettle’s third and ultimate level of happiness. Don’t focus on negative things; focus on the positive, and you will flourish. [attributed to Alek Wek] Human well-being is not a random phenomenon….
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Value for Thursday of Week 14 in the season of Sowing
Nurturing
Nurturing is an extension of comforting. It is emotionally satisfying but more important, it facilitates growth and a sense of self-worth.
- Every day, at home, I have the astonishing and humbling opportunity – together with my wife Sophie – to nurture empathy, compassion, self-love, and a keen sense of justice in our three kids. [Justin Trudeau]
- Bindi’s really, you know, got her own goals and aspirations, and if I can nurture what Bindi loves, then I think I’m being a good parent. Because Bindi’s got a natural love for wildlife, I think that will be part of what we’re nurturing. [Terri Irwin]
- Find out what your gift is and nurture it. [attributed to Katy Perry]
Nurturance is protection’s more affirming twin. Both are actions directed toward another’s welfare. One prevents harm, the other promotes well-being.
“Children’s emotional development . . . is no less important than other forms of development, and in many ways is key.” “. . . warm and supportive family environments typically promote healthy emotional development in children and contribute to the formation of positive behavioral patterns; conversely, hostile and indifferent family environments may lead to emotional problems and behavioral abnormalities in children.” “. . . pilot results (of a study) support the feasibility of infusing evidence-based social-emotional content into caregiver and educator training initiatives aimed at nurturing child social-emotional development and mental health.”
Real
True Narratives
- Ruth J. Simmons, Up Home: One Girl’s Journey (Random House, 2023): “. . . the author emphasizes the importance of education and family, especially her mother, Fannie, who sacrificed so much for her children. Simmons provides an extensive, engrossing family history of both the land they worked and the people she met along her voyage away from rural Texas to the highest rungs of academia.”
Technical and Analytical Readings
- Graham Music, Nurturing Children: From Trauma to Growth Using Attachment Theory, Psychoanalysis and Neurobiology (Routledge, 2019).
- Graham Music, Nurturing Natures: Attachment and Children's Emotional, Sociocultural and Brain Development (Psychology Press, 3rd edition, 2011).
- Riane Eisler & Douglas P. Fry, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future (Oxford University Press, 2019).
- Peg McCartt Hess, Brenda G. McGowan & Michael Botsko, Nurturing the One, Supporting the Many: The Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, Brooklyn (Columbia University Press, 2003).
- Tamsin Grimmer & Wendy Geens, Nurturing Self-Regulation in Early Childhood: Adopting an Ethos and Approach (Routledge, 2022).
- Jeffrey S. Kress & Maurice J. Elias, Nurturing Students' Character: Everyday Teaching Activities for Social-Emotional Learning (Routledge, 2020).
- Kathryn Peckham, Nurturing Babies: Developing the Potential of Every Child (Routledge, 2024).
- Kathryn Peckham, Nurturing Toddlers: Developing the Potential of Every Child (Routledge, ).
- Kathryn Peckham, Nurturing Children through the Primary Years: Developing the Potential of Every Child (Routledge, 2024).
- Kathryn Peckham, Nurturing Children through Preschool and Reception: Developing the Potential of Every Child (Routledge, 2024).
- Andrew Fitz-Gibbon & Jane Hall Fitz-Gibbon, Nurturing Strangers: Strategies for Nonviolent Re-parenting of Children in Foster Care (Routledge, 2019).
- Gaetano A. LaRoche, The Mentor-Disciple Relationship in the Visual Arts and Beyond: Mentoring as Human Nurturing (Routledge, 2025).
- Peter Sharp, Nurturing Emotional Literacy: A Practical for Teachers,Parents and those in the Caring Professions (Routledge, 2012).
- Laura Nabors, ed., Resilient Children: Nurturing Positivity and Well-Being Across Development (Springer, 2021).
- Ralf W. Seifert, Benoît F. Leleux & Christopher L. Tucci, Nurturing Science-based Ventures: An International Case Perspective (Springer, 2008).
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
From the dark side:
- Sarah Manguso, Very Cold People: A Novel (Hogarth, 2022): “. . . her parents are wicked; not in the Massachusetts slang sense but like Roald Dahl villains: alternately absent or all too present in the claustrophobia of their modest circumstances. Headboards bang; scalps smell; private parts flash and flop.”
Poetry
Poems:
- Pablo Neruda, “Ode to Wine”
- David Bates, “Chiding”
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Edvard Grieg composed his Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16 (1868) (approx. 27-32’) (list of recorded performances), in the year his daughter was born. Perhaps that has something to do with its exquisite tenderness, coupled with strength. Of the nearly 400 recordings that have been released, here are perhaps the best: de Greef in 1927, Rubinstein in 1942, Lipatti in 1947, Curzon in 1959, Michelangeli in 1965, Cziffra in 1969, Kovacevich in 1971, Lupu in 1973, Slåttebrekk in 2004, Shelley in 2008, Bavouzet in 2017, Leonskaja in 2024, and Tetzloff in 2025.
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Flute Sonatas include Sonata in G Minor for flute and harpsichord, BWV 1020 (1734?) (approx. 11-12’) (list of recorded performances); Sonata in B Minor for flute and harpsichord, BWV 1030 (1737) (approx. 16-17’) (list of recorded performances); Sonata in E-flat Major for flute and harpsichord, BWV 1031 (1734?) (approx. 10’) (list of recorded performances); Sonata in A Major for flute and harpsichord, BWV 1032 (1736?) (approx. 12-13’) (list of recorded performances); Sonata in C Major for flute and basso continuo, BWV 1033 (1736) (approx. 8-16’) (list of recorded performances); Sonata in E Minor for flute and basso continuo, BWV 1034 (1724) (approx. 14’) (list of recorded performances); and Sonata in E Major for flute and basso continuo, BWV 1035 (1741) (approx. 12-13’) (list of recorded performances). Here is a list for performances for BWV 1030-1035. The gentle but forward flute lends the air of nurturing. Top recorded performances of all or most of them are by, Rampal, Veyron-Lecroix & Huchot in 1962, Hazelzet, Ogg & ter Linden in 1983, Rampal, Pinnock & Pidoux in 1985, Galway, Moll & Cunningham in 1995, Solomon & Charleston in 1998 *** (Vol. 1; Vol. 2), Beznosiuk, Nicholson & Tunnicliffe in 2001, and Stinton, Wright & Johnston in 2013.
Other works in which the solo instrument seems to nurture the supporting players, or the players seem to nurture each other:
- Pietro Antonio Locatelli, Flute Sonatas, Op. 2 (1732) (approx. 120’) (list of recorded performances), and his Trio Sonatas, Op. 5 (1736) (approx. 110’)
- Bach, 3 sonatas for viola da gamba and keyboard instrument, BWV 1027–1029 (1720-1721) (approx. 28-46’) (list of recorded performances)
- Anton Arensky, Piano Quintet in D Major, Op. 51 (1900) (approx. 21-26’) (list of recorded performances): the strings nurture and support the adventurous piano.
- Mily Balakirev, Piano Concerto No. 2 in E-flat Major (1862) (approx. 32-37’) (list of recorded performances) is characterized by “the heroic nature of the first movement, the solemn and intense beauty of the second and the scintillation of the third . . .”
Two Indian classical ragas
- Raga Bilaskhani Todi (Bilāskhānī Todī), a Hindustani classical raag for late morning: in the image usually associated with this composition, a woman attracts a deer in the forest with her vina. “The story goes that when Tansen died, Bilas Khan sang this Raga so emotionally and beautifully that Tansen stirred!” Performances are by Nikhil Banerjee, Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar, Kishori Amonkar, Vilayat Khan, and Nikhil Banerjee.
- Raga Manj Khamaj is a Hindustani classical raag for late evening performance. Performances are by Nikhil Banerjee, Nikhil Banerjee, and Ali Akbar Khan & Ravi Shankar.
Albums:
- Steven Halpern, “Nurturing Your Inner Child” (1988) (64’)
- Muco, “Soþlice” (2025) (23’) opens with a song consisting of two lullabies, then traces a musical path back to fifth-century England.
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Paul Simon, “Loves Me Like a Rock” (lyrics)
- Sérgio Assad, Clarice Assad & Third Coast Percussion, “The Caregiver”
- Franz Schubert (composer), “Vor meiner Wiege” (At My Cradle), D. 927 (1827) (lyrics)
Visual Arts
- Paul Gaugin, The Offering
- Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Good Mother (c. 1773)
- Wassily Kandinsky, Black Accompaniment (1924)
Film and Stage
- The Country Girl, “Clifford Odets’ poignant drama of a broken-down actor, his loyal wife and a misunderstanding stage director”
- Sundays and Cybele, a film about a young girl nurturing a man back to emotional health
