[Adventure] In Erasing the Past

  

[Adventure 82]

OK, so you can't erase the past - but you can wash it away and paint over it.

When my eldest three children were very young, I invited a bunch of friends and their toddlers and preschoolers over to have a paint party in my kids' room. I got out red, yellow, orange, and green washable kids' paint and let the kids do whatever they pleased to the walls. It became the backdrop for castles, a lake, a village, and more - details added by myself and a couple friends. My children grew up in this bedroom, its current inhabitants our youngest two, who are thirteen and fifteen years old, and who weren't even born when the mural was painted. 

This past weekend my youngest child, Skye, and I took some hot water and sponges to the walls and wiped away the artwork they'd lived with for so long. Left on the walls were watercolor greens, yellows, and browns and shadows of castles and lakes and sea monsters and villages. Once dry, the painting began. 

The room was transformed into something more mature, more tranquil, more suiting the children who inhabit it. 

The artwork may be gone, but not the memories. And I'm sure posters and photos and new works of art will soon replace what was there and new memories will be made in the process.