The Importance of Just Being.

I have finally come to the conclusion that I must have the sort of face that compels people to confide in me. Place, time nor occasion stops the general public from bursting forth and telling me the most intimate of details. I feel slightly uneasy at times, other times I wonder if they have mistaken me for someone else but now I also feel an obligation to steer them in a different direction to the one they're stuck in! 

Sometimes life can be overwhelming.

Yesterday a young man at the fruit shop told me of a home invasion and how it had left him with a loss of his feeling of personal space, last week it was a checkout operator telling me of her joy in standing in her lounge room on dusk watching the koalas in the gum trees with a glass of wine in hand but that she would have to return to her homeland in New Zealand because of a divorce and lack of funds...I only bought celery, tomatoes and sourdough! I've had a well-past middle age immaculately groomed woman break down at her cash register in the middle of  Christmas, surrounded by carols trumpeting and Santa's bell ringing in the background when she described the joy of becoming a grandmother, the sight of me patting her on the back with misty eyes must have made some shoppers take a double look, I've driven an African immigrant to a hostel as she didn't know where to stay and had too many bags to lump onto buses, I've been asked to hold babies,mind luggage, wake people on trains at their stop, read timetables to little old ladies, take photos of families and even  serve behind a cafe for the owner who was attending her cut hand....

  

The feeling of being included in other people's lives is affirming. It's a basic human need that we matter to other people.

The need for art in our lives is fundamental to our expression of who we are. We were all born to be creative and to not feed it  is to deny our emotional needs. This is my daughter,

Chantal taking a photo of a plastic bag exhibit at GOMA but it doesn't have to be in an art gallery, it can be absolutely anywhere, it can be drawing in the sand with a stick, painting your name on a rock, designing a family calendar.....endless possibilities.....

We need to look at the sky....at least once a day...and breathe it in. The world is a big place and every day it starts fresh.

We need to stop and pause in our day. The shadows, the light, the edges, the colors..to process our thoughts.

We need to nurture our young. We need to stop... and look as they do.

I'm hoping that this week when I'm being confided in that I can at least bring a smile to someones' face.

Have a great week,
Vickixx