This is a homage to female species
It's a known fact they mature faster. While boys are still catching spiders, girls have blossomed into young women. Then as boys fall for the "hottest" girls, the really far sighted young women are already assessing which boy will become the best man to provide and care for her. Call it women's instincts but there is nothing to match their ability to peer beneath the surface and discern the true depth of the human soul.
In M, it is all true. She is petite. She is beautiful. But do not for one mistake her for a soft fragile flower. She is anything but.
She has taken hard knocks in her life, some courtesy of her cavalier dad who let go of the wheels and allowed her to fall off the bicycle and scrape her knees. Indeed, there was a time where every scar on her was a result of this "let's see if you can do it on your own" style of raising a kid.
Then there are the knocks delivered by a loving Mom, who true to the Chinese maxim of "to beat is to love", did what she had to do to instill discipline in a wilful little girl.
As a 3 year old, M's strong will was already known to us. We had sent her to a nursery about a km from our apartment. Most of her classmates were also from the Neighbourhood, some as nearby as living next door. She was picked up my our helper, F who would wheel her home in the pram. Something got into the head of this 3 year old as she observed her friends walking home and she resolved to do the same. So one day, out of the blue , she proclaimed that she too would walk home. Now, 1000m on those little legs are like a marathon. Yet, she never wavered from her decision. Determination drove her on the last bit of the walk but on she went until she collapsed in a heap at our front door.
On her own two feet and on her terms, M could take the knocks.
Some knocks are even burned out of good intentions and outcomes. Like not wanting to betray her loyalty to one team and therefore not getting into another. Like having an elder sibling who could and would accomplish much and set the benchmark. She took these all in her stride and developed admirable ways of coping.
When not part of a team's activity, she would make sure that her time is occupied just as meaningfully. Just last month, she travelled all by herself (by bus and plane) back to my hometown to spend the weekend with her grandparents (who were overjoyed to have her all to themselves). In one trip, she showed independence, toughness and love.
Let me conclude this happy note about M where I started. A woman knows what lies beneath because they too have immense depth underneath their soft exterior. For M, under those soft waves lie a character as great as the alps.
And it is to this character that I dedicate this piece of art aptly titled sub-alpine (which she herself felt a kinship to last weekend).
I have no doubt she will continue to find strength in the peaks and valleys of her soul that will continue to keep her happy.
