13/52: The Simple Things

I'm a quarter of the way through my blog posts in 2020 (Yay!) and it's fair to say this week has been pretty rough. In amongst the health and economic crisis that's unfolding, however, there were some pure moments of joy in our household.

The photograph above is titled "Swan Lake" and it was created by my 10-year-old daughter yesterday. Whilst I spent my time on a series of video conference calls and my wife, who works in health, had to attend to work, the kids got on with the important job of Play-Doh.

For those interested in the narrative, inspiration came from a walk we took by a creek a few weeks ago. My daughter explained "We were walking along that path by the creek, you know near the train station. I saw some swans and their signets swimming along and I thought they were really beautiful." There are also three grey eggs in a nest that might be hard to see in the picture (did you know swan eggs are often grey!?). A baby swan is hatching from one of the eggs. The reeds were made by using a roller to flatten a green piece play-doh and then curling it back on itself and finally cutting it into lengths.

So thanks to my kids for shining a light on the positive, the beautiful and the fun. It's been wonderful to spend so much time with them, watch them at play and learn more about what makes them tick. Like so many, my pace of life has altered and the upside is definitely the family connection. I'm not sure what the next few months have in store for us but it makes my heart sing to know I'll be guided by our beautiful kids with their uncanny ability to focus on the simple things in life.