Back to School: Here’s to New Beginnings, Again
I had no intention of going missing in action for this long, can you believe it has been three weeks since my last post? That explains why I am staring at the break I took without knowing I even took one. I hope you have had a lovely summer so far. Mine has been enjoyable, filled with family and friends as we create new memories. I have also been working as that never ends- I don’t want it to 🙂 I am now in a back to school state of mind. The start of a new season has always filled me with hope. As a child, the new year was celebrated loudly. Music and food along with family and friends flowed into and around our home. There was no time restriction from my favourite activity, bike-riding but when my brothers and I got a bit naughty, mummy would say; “What? In the new year? Do you want to start misbehaving already?” So I understood that when I received something new, I had the power to soil it or make it beautiful. That power was mine. Today, I still feel that power. I feel it at the start of a new year. I feel it when I’m about to embark on a new design project or happen on a business idea. I have felt it this week, as my youngest son prepares to start secondary school. With a five year gap between Josh and his older brother, his arrival was a gift to my husband and I. An opportunity to extend childhood’s stay in our home. I didn’t consider it then, but the time would come- and has come- when my first three sons would start to transition into men. That’s where we currently stand. You hear people say they can’t wait to be ‘free’ from the school run, or they are looking forward to their child being independent. For me, it is different. When the boys began their entrance into their teenage years, I found myself grasping at the personification of childhood- Josh, refusing for it to leave. There were times I was sad and even cried. It was an unusual situation, one where I was reluctant to embrace the new season. I didn’t feel I had the power to stain or decorate it. I felt it had already been partially decorated and all I could do was finish the picture in a way that made sense to me. Today as we work on that canvas, we stop from time to time. We hold a corner in each hand and inspect our work critically. Sometimes we grimace at the smudges of paint, at other times we marvel at how well we navigated an intricate area, managing to colour within the lines. I may not have had the power to decide the colours used to paint the portraiture, but I have the power to continue to paint until it becomes satisfactory. Until I deliver my young men as productive members of society who will in turn deliver their unique gifts to a waiting world. What have you been up to?
