Midway through Advent
I’m sipping my tea and looking out through my bedroom windows. I can see the bare branches of the ash trees, like a troupe of friendly scarecrows doing jazz hands. It looks cold and grey. That sounds grim but it isn’t. It’s the sort of muted grey that suggests stillness and rest. The garden seems to be taking this cold snap as an invitation to sleep. Not the robin, though, who is singing louder and bolder each day. Perhaps he is an early caroller and won’t stop till I give him a figgy pudding.
I’m enjoying the weather, despite the pain it brings to my joints. I can afford to keep warm, mostly- although not by putting the heating on in the day (god forbid!) but by wrapping up in thermal layers and wearing boiled wool slippers inside and insulated shoes outside. Not everyone can afford warm clothes, which is absurd. I shiver to think of the kids I’ve taught who would come into school on days like this without socks, or in a thin jacket with a bust zip, trying to hold it closed with freezing hands. We did extra carpet dancing on those days to keep everyone warm. There will be lots more cold kids this winter, in this country and across the world. I feel for them, deeply. Being cold is so tiring.
Anyway, this is my first blog, and I want to thank you for reading it. I’m so excited to be officially launching my therapeutic teaching practice in January 2023. I’ve always loved working with kids, but to be able to do it in a way that makes the best use of my own unique skills and personality is really a dream come true. I’m passionate about using creativity to help children process their emotional experiences, both conscious and unconscious. It’s something humans have done for millennia, and for various reasons, we get to do less in our culture now. It’s certainly something that I believe comes naturally to us, if we are given the space and permission to try. I hear so many people say ‘I’m not creative’ or ‘I’m so bad at art.’ And sure, some people are more actively imaginative than others. Some people can pick up a pencil and create a life-like image without too much effort. But that’s not all that creativity and art is about. Creativity, for me, is about thinking freely, being playful, about prioritising process over outcome, about having an outlook of open exploration. These might be easier for some than others, but I think everyone can do it! And art, for me, is about reflecting what we see, making something from our experience of the world. It’s doesn’t have to be a picture. It could be a moment of reflection that brings with it a sense of connection, or a realisation of something that holds meaning for you.
Anyway, I will stop rambling now, before you decide to find one of the many more dopamine-inducing activities out there on this here internet. Perhaps you have already, in which case, enjoy! I hope to meet you again next time, for as long as you decide to stay.
Take care, keep warm, and have a restful winter break. I hope it brings moments of joy and a feeling of hope as our little corner of Earth begins its long journey back towards the sun xxxx