It’s okay to say ‘How Much I Love You’ First time children’s author explores the expression of feelings

By Eoin Devereux Neepawa Banner & Press

The calendar year has been one of tremendous success for Delsie Martin. First, she completed her masters degree and began her practice as a registered social worker and private practice therapist. As if that were not enough, she has also completed a literary journey that’s been three years in the making, as she has self published her first children’s book, ‘How Much Do I Love You?’ The book, which was fully written and illustrated by Martin, looks to encapsulate the feelings of love and support a parent or caregiver have for their child.

While Martin grew up with a longstanding personal love for creative writing and painting, the motivation to use those talents to create ‘How Much Do I Love You?’ came from a single moment.

“I was walking my newborn daughter down the hall trying to comfort her as she was fussing and started telling her how much I loved her, then when she wouldn’t stop fussing right away I had to think of numerous ways to say how much I love her because when she cried she cried for a long time. It came from there,” said Martin. Further inspired by her own mother’s encouragement, Martin would then spend about three years, balancing family and education commitments to work on this creative outlet. While the words came easily and early, Martin noted the paintings are what took the most time, as she dealt with periods of self doubt and post-partum depression [PPD].

“I went through two very bad periods of post-partum depression during this time, so as is normal with PPD, I lost interest in the things I enjoyed, so I stopped creating,” shared Martin. “What surprised me was how my brain tried to attack me as I painted. This was really my first time seriously painting and I had lots of intrusive thoughts like, ‘You can’t do this’ ‘You’re a joke’ or ‘You should just give up’. Doing the book was a lot of work in part to me having to do a lot of internal therapy work to keep myself motivated.”

Martin added, however, that she was able to cross through those doubts and “The book was my self care time and a reflection of when I felt my best,”.

As for what lessons Martin hopes the reader takes from ‘How Much Do I Love You?’, she said it’s all about ensuring that children, and even the caregivers them- selves, feel unrestricted in expressing their genuine emotions for those that matter to them.

“The words ‘I love you’ are often presumed to not be needed in intimate relationships and with children, because we believe that ‘They should know this’. But, our bodies develop connection, attachment and bonding with our loved ones through expression of love both in actions and words,” stated Martin. “If we practice telling our children that we love them every time we feel it, they will in turn learn that it’s okay to express love freely and do it more often in their own future relationships.”

How Much Do I Love You? is available for purchase on Amazon.