50 Comments

oh amanda this is so beautiful. the wisdom & compassion of the children, it’s everything right now. sending you so much love & gentle mending.

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Damn it, Amanda! I have a Zoom call with someone at work in ten minutes and I can't do it in this condition! This was wonderful but it left me definately NSFW. And then I remember that when I started this job four years ago one of the first (risky, work environment and all) things I did was introduce this workmate to you by giving her "The Art of Asking" for Christmas and she loved it and it will be okay, I'll just have to send her this piece and she'll get it. As you say, "Thus the cellotape."

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Thank you. To you for writing. To Aya for getting it. For sending this thousands of miles across the ocean to a heart that needed it. For your all-inclusive virtual Whānau. ❤️ 🌎 🌍

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"Divorce is weird, and kids are smart."

If you're into Old books where guys with white beards carry around tablets of rules you recognize that this should have at least been in the top ten.

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"Four kids, three moms, one grandpa. The fridge is spilling over, the couch is covered in Weird Kid Things, there is very little floor space and very little thinking time, and I love it, because the house and my heart feel alive."

My body physically relaxed upon reading this. <3 <3 <3

That child is a worldly treasure. Searchlight soul. Glad to hear there's all kinds of good things happening around you. :)

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Very touching

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Well, that was simply beautiful.

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Every time I find you, you make my heart smile. I wish I could afford to be a patreon, but as a retired person and a working artist…well… every penny counts. But I do appreciate how you uplift me and give me hope when I need it. Thanks for being you.

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Oh, I love everything about this. I've had a really rough week. This made me cry. Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing.

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I need to remember that your posts leave me in weepy puddles and if I want to get back to work (which I have to do now) then I'd best read your posts when I have time to be a puddle. I'll wring myself out and get back to it. Thank you.

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❤️

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Wow...kids are indeed very very smart indeed. They can cut through all the frequently undefinable detritus we end up surrounded by, then buried under, as we ‘grow up’, right to the truly important bits.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard Yin and Yang symbolism expressed so eloquently before.

...honestly, I feel like I need a print of that art to help me remember what’s truly important.

In a therapy session I said I wished I could go back and explain to childhood me why I constantly struggled to fit in. My therapist reminded me that if I’d done that I’d be different now. And who I am now is rather wonderful.

Hence the sellotape indeed.

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It's 4.56am from AU. I know I'll never forget this shared experience. Just so utterly touching & beautiful. Thank you Amanda & thank you Aya; much love to you both x

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I felt this deeply, thank you 🙏🏻

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Oh gosh, that was just so much. So beautiful and so painful and so perfect. That child is wise beyond her years, and her perspective is just what we need to heal our broken world.

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Aya is brilliant, though I suspect her spots of love are a mite small.

She & Ash are lucky to have found each other.

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Well written & edited.

-Len

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