And when we, on into adulthood speak it, even haltingly, we return home to happiness.'
Ann Voscamp
It was one of those slow, quiet, recovering weekends in my home...for the most part. Perhaps following my lead, perhaps I theirs, my children and I often wander into creative lands on days like these....its a slow meandering process that might start in a 'polly pocket treehouse cum magic faraway tree' and travel through lego kingdoms to roll play with gathered nuts, grasses or seeds as pretend food. Our creative meanderings often end in the 'making' of something...today we raided the fabric scrapbin and made collages, exploring portraits + landscapes for my soon to be 9 year old's art birthday party making! Once this tumbling into creative process starts, I find it is easy to loose hours as we dream big dreams, try new things, make mistakes, pick up new materials and start all over again.
The biggest gift I can give my children is encouragement, the boost to try instead of saying 'I can't' and when all doesn't go as they had planned, they need only to look over to Mama's work and see that mine doesn't always go as I had planned either! We make mistakes and laugh together!
'There are no two identical persons on the planet. Anything created that expresses the essence of a person is wholly and entirely origional. And whenever I look at a creative work, I am looking at the IMPOSSIBLE CREATED. Because before those hands created it, it was impossible to have ever been created before!' Ann Voscamp
So can I encourage you, on days when you have time, or days when you make time, come alongside your children, create together and come home to happiness!
And when we might be quick to put away those pencils, glue, scissors, scraps, lego...leave them out a little longer....'for tomorrow, and all the artists and all the makers and inventors and dreamers and co-creators who will rise under the sun.' A.V.
