Grapefruit Fairy Dust

“You’re weird, mama,” my freshly 11-year old says, glancing at me from her virtual classroom (a.k.a. home, on the chromebook), smiling, with a twinkle in her eye.

“Thank you!” I respond. It’s a typical refrain in our home. My kids call me weird. Frequently. Each time, I respond with gratitude. One of the best compliments I could receive.

My nearly nine-year old looks up and sees one of the colorful tutus from her dress-up bin atop my head, and joins me as I return to my laptop. Back to work!

I’m part of a pilot group at C Space being trained in Talk for Health, which is teaching C Spacers a method of therapeutic talking (and sharpening our listening skills). With mental health and well-being needs as a priority, we are exploring different ways to take care of ourselves and bring our whole selves to work. Our whole, weird selves. We are learning to be more open and vulnerable by sharing our stories with each other, which is decidedly strengthening our relationships, in my experience. And this aligns well with one of our guiding principles, that relationships are the source of results.

So what does this have to do with my fancy headgear? I’ll be honest, I’m not even sure anymore… but it sure brought some smiles and levity when, after being instructed to get up and put on a costume - i.e. shift our identity- we returned to a gallery of vibrant, inventive portraits of self-expression. Sylvie joined me for this interlude, taking a break from her online math assignment. She noticed I’d been eating a grapefruit and connected the grapefruit-like hues of my crowning tutu and thus pronounced me “Grapefruit Fairy.” She showed me her classwork. Fractions. There was a circle with segments. 3/7 segments were shaded. We noticed it looked like a grapefruit. She looked up at me and giggled.

I feel incredibly, deeply, profoundly grateful.

And weird. :-)