it got better

After discovering yesterday morning that our kitten had happily been peeing for days in a box of precious memories (kids' art, handmade little books, cards, letters),

and having spent the morning trying to find one unruined special thing we could keep
(and putting the ruined things aside to possibly be scanned,
so they could live another life as an electronic record instead of a much-cherished piece of original art),

we decided to take the rest of the day off.

It was a beautiful day, and we decided to go OUT. 

Out to lunch in a cafe by the sea. 

Out for a long long walk past the harbour

towards a lighthouse,

along undiscovered paths,

and past undiscovered pillars,

to where cannons waited and wanted to be climbed

and toys longed to fly.

Beautiful.

Afterwards and at night, the kids said, "It turned into a good day, Mum!"
"Yes," I said (thinking the day had in fact turned glorious and full of smiles), "Howabout that! It did."


Then today at breakfast

the kitten jumped up on the table just as we began to eat our cereal.

As she was gently pushed off, she clawed the place mat,
and pulled my girl's placemat, entire bowl of cereal and whole glass of water onto her lap, her arms, her legs, and the floor.

AAGH!

Deep breath, deep breath; get the dog to come and eat the cereal, get the girl into the shower, find new clothes for her to wear, mop up the water, dry the table, clean the floor, throw out my own now soggy cereal, and

start again.

And reboot. 

How did we do that?

With writers workshop. With 20 beautiful young people. All coming, ready and bright-eyed, bringing stories and ideas to share, talking and laughing and supporting and writing, writing, writing…


And after a week that was

totally Kitten Crazy,

writers workshop blissed me out.


It made me choke up too. Like I was eyes-welling-up, finding-it-hard-to-talk

teary happy.

Because these kids… these kids … they are extraordinary.

They make my heart full.


In fact, I think anyone who gets to sit and listen to kids sharing the

deepest, most creative, insightful and sincere parts of themselves,

is one of the luckiest people on earth.


I got to be that lucky person today.

Plus I laughed and smiled so hard my face hurt.



And

when I got back home

nothing had wee where wee shouldn't be,

and lentil bolognese happened,

and my boy and my husband found and watched dozens of youtube videos of jazz drummers,

and my girl read peacefully at her desk,

and it was time for bed.



And I got to sit here

and write these words…

and show you

this photo I found…

Which is, I think, one of my favourite photos of all time.

So

you see?

It got better.

It really did.

.