Art

We were slightly ragged this Saturday morning as the kids (my niece Molly included) did some art at the kitchen table. Sara mucked in as best her hangover would allow. The night before, valentine's, my sister had come over from Doncaster for us to meet her new fella Dave.

22 years of marriage (of late not too happy) and Karen had finally called it a day. Paul (her ex) is my walking partner, and I'm thankful that the split has been amicable enough for us to continue walking. He's a very decent, lovely man, but they've not made each other happy these past few years.

Dave on the other hand offers Karen a different type of partner, and one that is clicking with Karen's needs at the moment.

I head a quote from Brene Brown - she said it's not a mid life crisis; it's a mid life unravelling. It's the time when you decide to stop being the person you've spent the past twenty years thinking you are, and become the person you actually are. This chimes with me, at 43. And I know both Paul and Karen have been going through a lot of that mid life unravelling. Sometimes it ends messily, sometimes, as with Karen and Paul, it ends civilly (though still with pain and loss).

And amidst all this life unravelling, the kids (and hungover mothers) can still find pleasure in art.