"When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college--that my job was to teach people how to draw.
She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, 'You mean they forget?'" --Howard Ikemoto,
from Art & Fear by David Bayles & Ted Orland
Lately, as part of rebuilding my newer better life, I've been trying to remember what made me happy when I was nine or ten years old. Back before all my energy was sapped by worrying about non-happy-making things like dieting, and makeup, and clothes. Before I gave a damn whether boys liked me, or if I was skinny enough, or what the hell my stupid hair looked like. What things brought me joy before pressure to seek approval from the big Ps--Peers, Parents, Professors, and the Patriarchy-- consumed my real self? And how can I bring some of those things back into my life today?
Here's my top ten list of things I loved most when I was a kid:
- Reading
- Drawing
- Dogs
- Monkeys
- Canoeing
- Making up stories
- Building sand castles
- Making tree forts
- Watching hilarious programs on tv
- Singing at the top of my lungs
In upcoming posts, I want to take a closer look at some of the ways I'm finding to return to the happy-making things that I somehow "forgot" when my life was so rudely interrupted by puberty. Stay tuned.
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