Today my lovely eldest son Sylvester turned double figures. A moment to look back over the past 10 years (as opposed to Covid time) and take stock. A whole decade of unconditional love and parenting, which pretty much equates to getting some things ‘right’ and getting some things ‘wrong’ and a whole lot of cuddling and muddling through.
Super proud of the little person he is becoming, my little man ‘from the woods’ (from the Latin silvestre, meaning wooded or wild). Creative, funny and most of all kind. Indeed the woods are one of the places where he seems to feel most free, covered in mud, trudging through murky streams or climbing a tree.
As near as such copses are however (we thankfully live on the fringes of Epping Forest), he is also growing up in one of the most populous cities in Europe and a cultural capital of the world.
He hasn’t seen much of what’s on offer yet but it’s all there waiting to be explored: the history, the art, the parks and gardens, the unexpected nature, the music, the technology, the food, the higgledy piggledy streets, the markets, the huge winding river, the various boroughs, the transport systems in and out, the pubs and bars, the places to dance and meet, the cinemas, the theatres, the work places, the work-out places, the surrounding areas and most of all, the melting pot of people that make it as wonderful as it is.
Looking forward to the next ten years, I loved that he asked for a camera for his birthday along with an art portfolio and some books on animation and street artists. He finds the written word tricky but like many with this academic stumbling block, is an engaging storyteller of the spoken kind. He’s also super creative with his hands, effortlessly engineering paper into origami shapes and increasingly confident developing images, compositions and designs. Can’t wait to see what he does with a lens . . .
The world is your oyster, as they say, and his journey to find the pearls of life has only just begun.