Thursday, March 27, 2008

right here, right now

If there's one thing I know, it's that there's a lot I don't know. A lot I have yet to learn, and some things I never will. But just lately it feels like a huge chunk of the universal syllabus has landed in my lap, daring me to read it. Go on, it's saying, take a peek. Read page 124, it's a masterpiece. I'm not far in yet, it's early days, but something is changing. I will never regain the stillness, the all-consuming focus of a five-year-old colouring in a mandala but sometimes just being in the same room as her is an education in itself. Live in the now, says the universe. Happiness 101. Leave your notebook at home.


Saturday, March 22, 2008

jazz hands



These babies have been languishing in the laundry for longer than I care to admit .. dismembered and kind of mouldy from too many happy bathtimes. After a couple of days and a bucket of bleach, hey presto! Good as new. It doesn't get much better than a freshly washed cherub.



I rest my case.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

someday we'll find it

I'm so out-of-control inspired by the people of this great big, tiny world called the internet. The mothers, the friends, the incredible creativity that is ours for the sharing. I love it. I love that on the face of it, it's all big computers and techno-speak but deep down, at the very heart of it, it's a long and winding path that you follow without a map, and the wonders you find are so very small and the people are just other people, just like you, dreaming and making and living one day at a time. People you're destined to meet, or even to meet again after what seems like a lifetime. It's a crazy world out there, but there is so much hope.

Monday, March 17, 2008

come the revolution, baby

Let's all hear it for Mr Dan Zanes, a man I first saw on Sesame Street and instantly fell in love with. From what I can gather he's a music man with a huge heart but all you really need to do is watch this and all will be revealed. Come the revolution, baby, we'll all be wearing yellow ponchos and playing the guitar. Dare you not to smile.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

with my own two hands

I can't really put my finger on it, but today was a special day. Not only because I spent it at home with my two girls, and not only because the sun was out and the sky was a cloudless blue. I think maybe because I just didn't think about being anywhere else. We played, I cooked pancakes, we painted, sang, danced, read books, and not once did my mind wander past these four walls. It was breathtaking.
Yesterday as I waited for Elsa at school I watched her class playing outside, running but they could have been flying from the looks on their faces, holding their little paper aeroplanes and letting them go, watching them fly then picking them up and doing it all again. It almost made me cry. Today was a bit like that too, just feeling the sheer beauty of everything that I just haven't felt for so long. Not really felt, not the kind of feeling you do when you're just so happy you want to cry.
Been listening to Jack Johnson's soundtrack for the film Curious George, and loving it. Particularly With My Own Two Hands, featuring the divine Ben Harper. The words: Gonna make a brighter place, with my own two hands, gonna help the human race, with my own two hands and the voices, and the sweet guitar, get me every time. I can't think of a more beautiful song, or a more beautiful message, to give our children.