My sister had taped up two big pieces of plain paper to one of the outdoor walls of their little house and drew a big Easter egg shape on each of them. The video she sent me was of my four year old nieces painting their Easter eggs.
Rosa was painting her egg very carefully, all in beautifully neat sections and shapes in different colours, being careful to keep within the outline my sister had drawn. She was standing right up close to her painting and going slowly and methodically with her brush.
Faye, on the other hand, was dipping her brush into the pots of paint and then wildly flinging the paint at the paper, causing it to splash in different patterns all over the place.
She said to my sister:
‘Does it look very splatty mummy?’
And my sister replied:
‘Yes, it’s a very splatty Easter egg.’
To which Faye said,
‘It’s not an Easter egg mummy, it’s a monster! A messy monster!’
And the best thing of all? They were both absorbed in their own creative process. They were both having fun, in their own unique ways. They weren’t looking at each other’s drawings and feeling inadequate about the way they were approaching theirs. Rosa didn’t think she should be messier. Faye didn’t think she should be neater. It hadn’t crossed their clear, innocent minds that they weren’t doing it ‘right’ or that they weren’t doing it ‘well enough’.
I could go on, but you know the point already.
There is nothing more beautiful than the way you see and do things. Embrace and honour what is natural to you and don’t let the world beat it out of you. Messy monsters and neatly drawn eggs are both needed in the world!
Love and courage,
Leah
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