I Am

This has been a terrible week for me but I am not going to focus on that here.

Instead I am going to look at two very small words said by my oldest today.

I AM.

She looked at us and said, 'that's what artists do and I AM an artist.'

I teared up. She is so sure of part of what she wants to do. I didn't have the confidence to say anything like that till much older than her. In fact I sometimes struggle with the idea of saying I am a writer.

She doesn't see how tough it is to be creative and prosper in that, she just wants to do it. She spends a lot of time drawing, making, colouring and painting.

When I'm down at my worst I fleetingly wonder if we are doing her a disservice in encouraging her to pursue things like this. I wonder because it has been so hard for us to even get where we are. I can't not encourage her though. It means so much to me that she is free to become the person she wants to be, no matter what course that takes.

There is power in words, I spend so much time around them I shouldn't forget that.

So I am going to take a moment to just say this...

I AM A WRITER.

Sometimes the lessons we need to learn are the ones the young can teach us.