Putting Down Roots

One of the reasons that we worked so hard to keep Sweet M at her current school was that we could see from her drawings that something was changing in her sense of relatedness.

These drawings from her series of flowers, trees, and cacti are from the fall and winter of last year . . .















We're not art therapists, but it looked to Fathersvox and I that she was, bit by bit, feeling settled. Between September and January the image of the solitary flower gave way to the image of field of blossoms, and even the cactus in the beating sun could send down roots in search of nourishment.

With her medication changed, and the help of her amazing one-on-one, Sweet M was feeling connected. Disrupting that would have been foolish, though allowing the school to eliminate the services of her one-on-one seems to have been almost as disruptive.

Last week Sweet M brought home this image she'd drawn . . .













A single flower blossoming under a delicious yellow sun, but singular once again.