“Be brave enough to live life creatively, the creative place where no one has ever been.” -Alan Alda
If I’d only known that she’d have to go on to live life not only creatively but authentically. She must be braver than anyone I’ve ever known!- 7/2015
This child was always one to take the lead and see what happened later. We couldn’t keep up with them when they were a toddler. Swirling around, causing commotion, a whirlwind of activity, they were that for sure. Swift, impulsive, and almost dizzying, as a mother, this little one tired me!
When they were in the fifth grade, this child splattered paint on the page. They wrote an artist statement expressing that they did this because they wanted to see what happened when they randomly threw paint down on paper. They concluded in a paragraph explaining that the painting turned out to look like the great feeling they get when they ride on a roller coaster.
How do colors on a page look like a feeling? Fifth graders know about those things. Fifth graders with the wonder of my child most certainly know.
I think maybe I’ve forgotten what a feeling looks like on a page. Maybe I haven’t forgotten. However, I don’t want my child to forget how to do this!
This child leaves this weekend.
They are no longer familiar with splattering paint. High school asked for more assembly, less creativity. Late nights, long days, and tiring assignments needed organization that nearly broke their spirit!
Still, this one is one of the most original and creative people I know. This is being said objectively, I assure you.
They were voted most artistic and received an unexpected superlative in their high school yearbook. I know they may have forgotten that they are creative. The superlative reminded them and me. Oh, yes, that’s right!
This beautiful person is an artist, for sure, but not in the way you are thinking. They do not color with paint but with notes, sounds, rhythms, and breaths. Still, they can really splatter color! I can’t wait to see what happens!
Am I ready to let them go? No, definitely not. Not this expressive, imaginative, ingenious creature, I can’t be prepared to release this one. They are visionary. True, sincere, naïve, and too honest, yet surreal, and they cannot be ordinary.
Someone who wants to see what happens doesn’t really know what is happening. I am scared for them.
I know I have to see what happens. If you know me, help me trust that when the colors fall on the page, they will evoke the same feeling as riding a roller coaster, and that the colors are beautiful, safe, and pretty.
Thanks.
There Is A Time 