authenticity, innocence, kindness
Vasily Grossman had a genius for writing about animals with empathy and respect, whether it was war horses and mules, or dogs. Here he dedicated a short story to imagining the experience and mind of the first dog sent into space. This little creature, grabbed from...
authenticity, awards, beauty, enchantment, happiness, innocence, kindness, moments, resilience
Our fifth nominee for a Nuannaarpoq Award is: Maria Voiteshonok Parameters:Â 20th-21st centuries, Russian, real, human, female, living Nuannaarpoq qualities:Â authenticity, beauty, enchantment, innocence, kindness, resilience References: ‘The story of a...
authenticity, happiness, innocence, kindness, resilience
After years of exile, deprivation and harshness, some kindness is shown to two young girls cursed by having had politically tarnished parents, leading to a protracted period in Siberia. The elder sister, Vladya, had tuberculosis, picked up while living quite...
happiness, innocence, kindness
After spending most of her childhood exiled in Siberia, much of it as a half-starved orphan, Maria is finally rescued by a distant aunt who takes her in and gives her a loving home for the first time in her life. “Oh my little birdie …” my aunt would...
happiness, imagination, innocence, resilience
This excerpt from an interview with a Russian writer brought up in Siberia, due to the political exile of her parents, demonstrates the child’s deep need to play and the imagination which led her to create her own dolls, despite poverty, exclusion and general...
discovery, enchantment, innocence, inspiration, resilience, sharing
An extraordinary account by a Russian writer, recounting how she and her sister, surviving as near beggars due to the political exile imposed on their parents in the Soviet Union, managed to think about poetry even while starved of food and kindness.  Their living...
beauty, colour, discovery, enchantment, happiness, innocence, moments, resilience
This moving quotation is from an interview with a Russian writer who grew up in Siberia, born of a family which was politically exiled during the Soviet era, meaning that both she and her sister began life living, quite literally, underground, and were later...
innocence, kindness, sharing
An image of both friendliness and security, a place where you can leave your gate open. Eventually they reached an open gate – open because in those days life in the country was so secure that a closed gate signified either unfriendliness or else that the owners...
innocence
Innocence is one of the key themes we chose for this website (here’s why), and I believe Dante backs me up. I mean innocence and not naivety, and see it as needing a form of resilience to be maintained in a human life despite being aware of and involved in the...
enchantment, happiness, innocence, nuannaarpoq
A personage who takes delight in small things he finds on the wayside – I loved this eclectic selection of things spotted, gathered up, carefully placed and then returned to.  Even in the open countryside he retained his passion for play-things, and would carry...
authenticity, awards, beauty, colour, enchantment, freedom, happiness, humour, imagination, innocence, inspiration, kindness, nuannaarpoq, resilience, sleep
Our fourth nominee for a Nuannaarpoq Award is: John Keats (1795-1821) Parameters:Â 18th-19th centuries, British, real, human, male, now living elsewhere Nuannaarpoq qualities:Â authenticity, creativity, enchantment, happiness, freedom, imagination, kindness, life,...
beauty, colour, discovery, enchantment, happiness, innocence, memory, nuannaarpoq
A powerful recall of childhood memories regarding the names of plants, the homes of toads, the awakening of birds and the smell of both seasons and trees. A surprisingly gentle recollection in a book which has plenty of violence. I started learning the names of...
authenticity, discovery, enchantment, happiness, innocence, moments, nuannaarpoq, sharing
James Rebanks describes a touching element during a class visit to his farm, where one little boy finds solace in simply gathering some eggs or watching the dogs work with the sheep. One day a class came from a distant town, and we were told that one little boy was...
authenticity, awards, beauty, colour, enchantment, freedom, happiness, imagination, innocence, inspiration, kindness, life, resilience
Our third nominee for a Nuannaarpoq Award is: Mary Delany (1700-1788) Parameters:Â 18th century, British, real, human, female, now living elsewhere Nuannaarpoq qualities: authenticity, enchantment, imagination, innocence, kindness, resilience References:Â Molly...
discovery, innocence
The blithe and luminous boy Goldmund arrives at the school which will be his home until he reaches adulthood, and feels reassured by two new friends. Of course, his real friendship comes later, but I liked that the trusting child sees a tree as a potential friend, as...
beauty, colour, discovery, enchantment, innocence, sharing
A moment when the two main characters of Bronte’s less well known novel get to know each other. Shirley, newly arrived, proposes a day in the woods to Caroline, who knows the land and the calendar of its changes in minute detail, a mental map she is happy to...
happiness, innocence, kindness, sharing
After decades in a concentration camp, this man finds love in kindness. After being released from the clutches of the gulag, he rents a room in the flat where she lives with her son. Over time, he sees her kindness, and in it, beauty, and finds a period of love,...
happiness, innocence
Otters seem to be the most nuannaarpoqian of animals. Their life skills, resilience, confidence and playfulness captivated me when I read the evocative classic Tarka the Otter, celebrated here with rich pickings of quotes and metaphors.  Another classic, Gavin...
authenticity, innocence, life
This current and timeless phrase – with that curious ‘inmate’ alongside the energetic ‘active’ – comes from Wordsworth’s image of himself as an infant, tapping into some greater connectivity than mere wifi systems and smart...
enchantment, innocence, moments, sharing
Wanted to share a few lines from the song ‘Colibri Dorado’. Below you’ll see some of the lyrics with an English translation provided by a listener. I also liked a comment, surely a nuannaarpoq moment, shared by Elena Rincon (approximate translation...
happiness, innocence
The spirit of nuannaarpoq includes the capacity for feeling joy vividly, regardless of the passing of years, or as Luiz puts it, the ‘accumulation of youth’. May your joys remain vivid, wherever you are in life. ‘… that wove itself into my joys...
beauty, enchantment, innocence
If ever we needed to remember our love of the earth, it is now. I like George Eliot’s hypothesis that our love of it is anchored in our childhood experience of it. Get your kids – or yourselves – down to the park or into the country, and start...
happiness, innocence, memory, moments, resilience
Arundhati Roy’s heart-rending novel captures moments of intense sweetness, all the more precious for their rarity. Here the two children make of them a scant necklace of joy-beads. ‘Moments like these, the twins treasured and threaded like precious beads...
innocence, moments, sharing
Having given birth to cubs, Tarka’s mate goes her own way. But before they part company he calls her to play one last game at the bridge and she joins him there. I liked the timelessness of the otters’ game which Williamson suggests has been played since...
