Lessons from Children the experts in Wonder

i

am an artist and illustrator and these

little dynamos form a vital component in

my creative fuel

full to the brim with potential hope

possibility and wonder they’re

completely unprejudiced

completely honest completely original

they all are isn’t it strange then

that instead of listening and learning

from them we ask that they sit still

and be quiet so that we can educate them

to be more like us

it’s important that you’re listening

what did i just say

before they arrived i’ve been taught to

think

that everything needed to be taken very

very

very seriously asked to leave

my untamed thoughts vivid imagination

and wild ideas

outside the classroom door to be

replaced by the same

second-hand knowledge and information

that everyone else was getting i’ve been

led to believe

like so many people that life was about

collecting and consuming as much

knowledge

and experience as possible to turn into

this perfect

respectable responsible version of

myself

along the way something had gone missing

my ability to play be wild fluid

and learn from my mistakes have been

replaced with a rigidity

and a need to get things right

instead of getting closer to this

self-made goal

of optimum successful meanness

i was getting further away

i wasn’t happy it

i wasn’t happy

so i made a decision that changed my

life and my

practice as an illustrator and it

started

at home they began to talk

i began to listen

i gave myself three rules one

i would listen and keep a drawn diary of

all their most important

bizarre profound and ridiculous words

two the drawing had to be quick and

spontaneous

three i wasn’t allowed to rub anything

out

and i had to be completely true to what

they said

in doing this i rediscovered pure wonder

imagination buried under an avalanche of

information

made its way back to the surface doors

that had closed

reopened eyes that have become tired

were awake

this is what i learned the time travel

is possible

never follow the crowd

believe in the impossible

achieve greater balance

that we’re made up of the same stuff as

everything else

the world is your back garden

that the biggest ideas can be explained

in the simplest of ways

that what i do for a living doesn’t

define who i am as a person

the love is weird

that learning never ends

in constantly reaching ahead for a more

perfect version of myself

i left something behind something better

a part of me so i listened

and learned from the little experts in

potential

hope possibility and wonder

i was reminded that i was once like that

and could be again too

you