Yes, I am back.
Tomorrow I will turn 40! It is a large milestone that I have seen looming in the distance for quite sometime with a slight disbelief that it would ever arrive, but here it is loud and brash and bright and rather weighty. As I have told everyone in my life, it is not that I mind getting old but rather that I am surprised by how old I am. I seem to be missing a decade. Its not that the absent decade went by in a whirl of crazed parties, but that it disappeared at such pace I seem somewhat disconnected from it. The thirties. Growing up, raising bonds, raising pets, raising each other, raising children. Raising children. There lies a large part of the blur.
Children. The real indicators of time. The babies I gave birth to ten minutes ago are not only walking, talking, opinionated, fluid human beings but they are tall and can compose rational arguments (most of the time, but then again who can compose a rational argument all of the time?!). The days of pre-school casualness have been replaced by the rushed seriousness of primary school and I know that, like my thirties, it too will gather momentum and disappear into the time machine of future blurriness, only to merge into high school and adolescence before I know it, if I don't pay attention. If I continue on this rampant path of busyness and endless movement, my children's childhood will disappear and I will again be missing a decade. Theirs, mine, ours. So with my new age comes new wisdom, a renewed consciousness if you will, to be present, to slow down, to take holidays even though the world says its the wrong time and the bank account declares it insane. Taking time is making time, the sought after essence of living. I want to remember my forties clearly, I want to enjoy my family while they are still mine to care for.
And very thematically, my lovely craft this week reflects a focus on slowing and reconnecting something I intend to expand on in my classes. It is the simple technique of guided meditation, getting children to , lie still and create images that are uniquely theirs.
This week we used the archetypal tree. The tree that is rooted in the earth but moves with the sky. Themselves.
Herewith are some beautiful results....
I offered them paint, glue, scissors, and any other material they might need. We listened to music, then merrily critiqued each painting using the recently acquired art terms. I was utterly delighted with the results! As were they!
