A Thousand Thoughts

This activity was three years in the making. I didn’t know the time had arrived today, until it arrived. I didn’t know I had a story to share today, until it grew itself in my kitchen.

This is a photo of my three and six year old kids, standing together on a single chair in the kitchen, in the process of making a cake. Together, with me. At the same time. One asked to cook, the other asked to join. One mum told herself, ‘Just go with it’. One offered to share a chair, the other accepted. One said they wanted to crack an egg, the other said ‘I want to do one too’. One spilt some flour and worried, the other laughed, but kindly. The cake got made. We all made mistakes and recovered. The tin made it into the oven and no one had even had a fight. I noticed all of this as it happened, but its significance and beauty is too much to fully absorb or express in real time. My mind commits moments like these to memory because they feel SO GOOD. This is really simple stuff but not simple for us. I hope I always treasure small beauties.

Cooking a cake together was three years in the making because there are so many things that need to come together to make that something within everyone’s capacity. This slow build represents so many hurts, struggles, attempts and stumbles that are not behind us, but within us. They aren’t things we have conquered but come to know, understand, accept, accommodate, give space to. This cake is made with a sibling relationship growing in love and not just frustration, compassion and patience and not always resistance. You’ll notice both kids are wearing ear muffs. They anticipated the noise and requested them. We had cloths close by to wipe slimy stuff off our hands. We worked quickly and I ignored mess and chaos cos my goodness, you have to strike when the iron is hot, right? 

Imperfect everything and growing all the time.