Tangled Bits Of String

Tangled bits of string, strewn across the floor. A giggling toddler wobbling her way across the living room, a trail of unwoven, slobbery yarn trailing behind her. She topples down onto her behind and giggles, flashing me an enormous toothy smile.

How she finds my yarn I don’t know. I try to keep my yarn away from her, but somehow she seems to find some way of getting to it. Along with the frustration comes joy. The joy in knowing that my daughter takes interest in what I do. The bright colors, the sensory feeling of soft yarn on your hands, there is nothing like it. My daughter enjoys these things as much as I do.

The sheer delight in her eyes when she received a stuffed lemon off my table at the craft fair after she was good all day; melted my heart. The pure innocence and joy in her eyes reminded me of simpler times. When instead of trying to keep up with a growing toddler, and attempting to start a business out of our tiny apartment; I was playing in the mud or sewing costumes for me and my friends. The joy our children show us is like nothing I have ever experienced before. A glorious mixture of nostalgia and happiness, with a tiny tinge of sadness at times gone by.

Its times like these that I realize how much we take the tiny things for granted. How we let life slip by without stopping to feel the wool between our fingers. Without noticing the small beautiful things that pass us by at adults. We should all aspire to catch that spark of pure imagination and joy. That joy that once turned funnels into trumpets and wrapping paper tubes into swords, can now be turned into the joy that urges an artist to create.

So let that yarn tangle, enjoy the experience of creative expression, and keep the spark alive.