Riding a Bike – With Love
Illustration © D. Yael Bernhard
Here is a simple illustration from my self-published greeting card booklet, Love Is. This little picture book fits in a 5”x7” greeting card envelope and can be mailed with just two first class stamps. Written and illustrated for all ages, it’s a rhyming poem about the most ordinary forms of love that children can relate to (mostly non-romantic) – and that teens and adults are invited to contemplate.
The girl shown here is riding a bike for the first time, with her mother helping her learn to balance. As she gains momentum, she also gains confidence. I tried to convey this in her facial expression, capturing the subtle moment where her apprehension turns to exhilaration as she realizes yes – she can do it!
And what enables her to do it is her mother’s confidence in her, also shown in the cool assurance of the woman’s facial expression. There’s not a shred of doubt there.
The child learns, and the mother lets go – a bittersweet act of love as the parent gives her child a vote of confidence, like pushing a boat away from a dock, knowing it’s seaworthy – and will sail away. Supportive letting go is the hallmark of good parenting – and a razor’s edge to walk.
The child, too, is acting out of love, by trusting her mother’s belief in her – by trusting love itself, a gift that adults are not always able to give so freely. Trust enables love to flow from giver to recipient and back again. Many parents feel burdened by their children’s neediness, but the flip side of this need is their receptivity, their natural ability to sink into the arms of love. Authentic need is not demanding. Thus caregivers receive an incredible gift by giving. Anyone who knows the satisfaction of volunteer work understands this – and will relate to the verse on the previous page. The two facing pages read as follows:
Love is providing
comfort and aid;
Love is encouragement
when you’re afraid.
This entire book features these kinds of thought-provoking interactions, each suggesting a hidden story that readers may imagine. Because I wasn’t paid to do the work (and six years later still have not broken even on my printing costs), I used a simple, time-saving technique of white backgrounds and cartoon-like, outlined illustrations with restricted color. Not my usual style, but it worked for this subject.
The concept of this book was inspired by Ahava Raba, a Hebrew blessing that is spoken or sung in synagogue services all over the world before the recitation of the Shema, the declaration of the oneness of the Eternal Creator. Ahava Raba expresses God’s boundless love for humanity as a parent-like presence that cares by guiding us, through the teachings of Torah, to understand the laws of life, to be merciful, and to “place in our hearts the ability to see, to hear, to learn, to teach, to keep, to do, to uphold with love all that we study of Jewish tradition” . . .
. . . and to help our children learn to ride a bike.
Creating this book was truly an act of love. Ordinary love. Nothing noble, just plugging away at each illustration until it was done. Finishing a task on behalf of others is another form of love shown in the book. My maternal grandmother, of blessed memory, patiently finished sewing clothes for me and my dolls even when her hands ached with arthritis. She loved me – and I love her forever.
You can send a signed copy of Love Is to your valentine of any age by ordering the book from my webstore ($9.95 including shipping). I can send the book directly to the recipient of your choice, or you can inscribe it yourself and send it in the envelope provided.
A good week to all!
D Yael Bernhard
http://dyaelbernhard.com
children's books • fine art • illustration
posters • cards • calendars