Well, despite my last post, here it is: a picture of the fairy garden (this in its second rendition.) Oh, the joy that Francesca emits while working on these tiny doors and windows made out popsicle sticks and straws. It is utterly palpable. It is as if she is going to jump out of her skin from excitement. And oh how she listens to her dad as he explains why and how things are being put together. During the first making of this fairy home (the first go around was sadly destroyed the night after it was made by a rain and wind storm; talk about a lesson in not grasping!) Francesca exclaimed with the same utter joy, "this is hard work." Matt replied, "yes, hard work is fun sometimes."
When I was in graduate school we would talk about this concept of flow - you know, when the kid is both challenged and successful. And we talk about it in terms of athletics and yoga and perhaps even meditation. To me, Francesca making this fairy garden was a textbook example of this notion of flow . . .this happiness that comes from good hard work.
Concurrently, I was reading My Life in France by Julia Child (read it!) and was so taken with this exact experience that Julia had when she discovered cooking. The delight that she felt from finding something that she loved so much - good hard work - flew off the page at every turn.
I think about work a lot these days of "not working" (although the work of parenting is often good hard work) and this is all that I could want for myself, my children, all the people of the world: that they are absorbed by whatever it is that they are doing and are more often than not able to feel that flow. And if not, well, go make a fairy garden.
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