This morning started as a typical day with Britain’s meteorological face utterly living up to its prejudice.  We had spent the night with Wilson in a random grey and lifeless suburb of Southampton. Whilst Pablo was doing some admin after brekky, I took the kids out for a walk. There I was standing in the drizzle, Gael tucked close to me in his usual Koala position, watching Noah having the time of his life with some bubbles.

My mind started to run faster and faster, until the point where I started to ask myself why I wasn’t doing anything better of my life… I could be studying for a midwifery degree whilst continuing to work as a Doula; I could be teaching yoga classes by the beach back in Sydney; I could be helping orphans in South America;  I could even go back to the UN or corporate world and work in the environmental and social space trying to improve the bigger picture… Wasn’t there anything better I could do with my life than watch my two year old being immersed happily in blowing tens and hundreds of bubbles, one at a time?

Then, quite suddenly, all that mental clutter disappeared and the answer was so clear to me: No, there wasn’t anything better to do than watch my two year old blowing and running after his bubbles. By no means. What a privilege! I had finally managed to slow down, something which I had been anticipating a lot back in Sydney. Right then, I was right there, in that very moment. Nowhere else.

Only yesterday was he a newborn baby, snuggled up in my arms. Before I know it, he’ll be grown up, out of the house (or van or boat) and I will only see him on special occasions. What use in trying to save the world, when you miss out on one of the best opportunities to make this a better place – make your kids a better person; spend time with them; learn from them; teach them the little we know; be happy with and for them; live together kindness, joyousness, absorption… and let them remind us about the essence of life; love.