The Moment in the room that made us all cry

Last weekend I did something I hardly ever do.

I took a whole day off...!

I know. Try to contain your shock.

I reorganised my wardrobe, baked blueberry and white chocolate muffins and shared them with my family. Pretty delicious too if I do say so myself.

And for one whole glorious day I did not think about work at all.

Well. Almost.

Because here is the thing about doing work that genuinely matters to you. It has a way of sneaking back in. Not in a stressful way. More like a quiet tap on the shoulder reminding you why you do what you do.

And what snuck back in this week was a moment from the Davis Parent Power course that I cannot stop thinking about.

There was a woman in the room. She is in her 70s. And as she began to talk about her lifelong experience of being a picture thinker her voice was shaking.

Decades of struggling with written words. Decades of wondering why things that seemed easy for everyone else felt so hard for her. Decades of not knowing there was a name for any of it, let alone an explanation.

And yet throughout her whole life she has been a fantastic artist. Her brain was never the problem. It was just that nobody had ever shown her how her brain actually worked.

Sitting in that room, finally understanding herself, she was moved to tears.

I was too if I am honest.

She was not alone in that room either. Parents recognising their own struggles in the stories of their children. Teachers and teacher aides having those lightbulb moments about the students they work with every single day. Revelations all around.

And then we got the clay out.

Now if you think working with clay is a bit weird and something you left behind before you reached your teens, think again. Last week I watched a room full of adults get completely and utterly absorbed in their creativity. You could practically see the connections sparking in their brains as they worked.

We were not just making simple words either. We were making lactobacillus.

Yes, really.

Because when you can hold a word in your hands, turn it around, feel it, build it yourself, it stops being a confusing jumble of letters and becomes something you actually understand. That is the experience of being a picture thinker. And that is what this work does.

It does not matter if you are ten years old or in your 70s. Discovering and understanding how your brain works changes everything.

Are you wondering if any of this sounds familiar?

Maybe it is your child you are thinking about. Maybe it is yourself. Maybe you have been quietly carrying the experience of being a picture thinker your whole life without ever having the words for it.

I would love to hear from you. Hit reply and tell me what resonated. I read every single message and I always write back.

Or if you are ready to find out what is possible, let's have a chat.