The Cave of Wonders and other Voices in My Head…

The beginning of Ikigai.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

When does Ikigai uncovering begin?

With encouragement, it can begin in childhood.

My grandson E loves to do voices.

His practice of making voices started less than auspiciously. I have hearing loss from working around military jets.

When he would get disappointed or want something he couldn’t have, he would murmur and was difficult to hear.

I’d ask him to use a big boy voice, and he would talk a bit louder. One day I told him he needed to speak (using my own exaggerated voice) a little louder like a Grandpa does.

So he did that, and we laughed about it.

The Cave of Wonders

He started doing ‘grandpa’ voices. It helped because he almost always had to laugh while doing it, even if he was upset.

One day he used the louder grandpa voice to imitate the Cave of Wonders in Aladin.

He matched it perfectly. Then he imitated the parrot!

The other night I got a text from his dad with a video. My wife has a bit of a southern accent that shows up when she is tired or being firm. The video was of E imitating her in a fun way. It was hilarious.

Encouraging Exploration

He is looking for voices he can do or imitate now regularly. Do I think he will grow up to be an impersonator on stage? I have no idea.

I do know we are encouraging exploring interests and making skill development fun for him.