I was 15 years old my Dad gave me a book. He told me to look for the magic in it. It sat on my dresser for months, what would Dad know?

 

Slowly I started reading I Can by Ben Sweetland then I couldn’t put it down. I hadn’t known the strong link between thinking positively and achievement before reading this book. But the magic for me was learning about visualisation. I immediately put it to work, but probably not in the way my Dad had intended.

 

I made a goal that the boy two classes ahead would ask if he could take me out and made the commitment to support this goal with visualisation. An impossible dream. Two years difference in age was a lifetime in school years and senior boys were not much interested in grade 10 girls.

 

But I was not deterred. I was mad about him. So every night before I went to sleep I imagined him coming to my house, knocking at the door. I imagined what I would be wearing. I imagined Dad opening the door with a welcoming smile. I filled in every detail in Technicolor.

 

Three weeks later, on a Saturday night in late September, Harry came to our front door and collected me for the school dance. I couldn’t believe it. This visualisation really works! I was committed to it for life.

 

I went on to use visualisation for all sorts of things, improving my swimming, getting a job in the school holidays, and yes, even improving my schoolwork. More like the things my Dad probably had in mind in giving me I Can.

 

I didn’t tell anyone about my discovery. I think Dad knew I was using it; he had that smile on his face the night Harry came to collect me that looked like he knew something was up.

 

I also didn’t want to tell anyone in case it broke the magic. Funny.

 

Years later I started to share the magic when in 1992, I wrote Take Me To My Garden Mummy. This children’s book went viral. I still have children who had read it in 1992 contacting me to buy a copy for their children.

 

So here is Dreams Can Come True, my latest version of that original idea. It is written for parents, grandparents and teachers to read to primary school children.

 

Sometimes children need a quiet space of their own where nothing goes wrong. By using their imagination, they can find this special place. Their favourite place may become any one of the seven visualisations in Dreams Can Come True: The Secret Garden, Library of Learning, Magic Cave of Friends, Rainforest Healing, The Beach and the Healing White Light, Flying in the Clouds, Pink Bubble. These become positive places to solve problems, helping to put their young minds to rest.

 

Visualisation creates an environment for both adults and children to grow and learn, and to engage their imaginations. Adults often say that after a busy day, going to the Secret Garden or Magic Cave of Friends with a child relaxes them as well, and rejuvenates their sometimes flagging spirits.

 

I have included a CD of these seven visualisations in Dreams Can Come True. The book is beautifully illustrated by John Flitcroft.

www.vickibennett.com.au or www.boolarongpress.com.au

Two Pennies

An old man sat with his daughter, his blue eyes twinkled as he opened a small wooden box and took out two pennies and placed them in her hand. ‘When I was a little boy, I raised money to help build a school in France. I have kept these pennies for you to take them to France and give them to the school for me.’

Eighty years earlier, just after World War 1, this little boy called George, who lived above his Mother and Father’s bakery in Albert Park, Melbourne, decided he wanted to make a difference.

So he woke up early to care for the horses that drew the carts that delivered the bread.

First, he led them from the stables, put their bridles over their necks and tethered them to the horse railing outside. Then he fed each of them a bucket of oats, so they would have full stomachs to do their day’s work.

After the horses had delivered the bread, George washed and brushed their coats so they were clean and shiny.

Soon he had earned his first two pennies to help build the school in Villers-Bretonneux which been flattened by war.

George was not alone, thousands of Victorian schoolchildren donated pennies. This initiative of the Victorian Department of Education became known as the Penny Drive.

The Victoria School, on the rue du Victoria in Villers-Bretonneux, was rebuild between 1923 and 1927. The school is a gift from the children of the State of Victoria, Australia, to the children of Villers-Bretonneux as proof of their love and goodwill towards France. Twelve hundred Australian soldiers, fathers and brothers of these children, gave their lives for the heroic recapture of the town in April 1918.

On the front of the school are two plaques, one in French and one in English, referring to this bond. In the quadrangle of the school, painted over a porch on a green background in yellow is written DO NOT FORGET AUSTRALIA. This inscription is also found in French in each classroom.

In 2012 I flew to France and found the little school in the village that my father had helped to build and gave the headmaster, Monsieur Hollinville, George’s treasured two pennies.

These two pennies are now proudly displayed in the French-Australian Museum in Villers-Bretonneux. They tell the story of a little boy who had a dream and made it come true.

A bond was forged between George and Villers-Bretonneux that was never broken.

Two Pennies is a powerful and poignant story about this little boy, my Dad, who, with courage, hope and perseverance, helped to build this school across the oceans.

This book is his story.

Click onto the buy page to find out more about Two Pennies.