“It’s the art show!” I announced as two of my favorite young children darted in and out of the room. Just beyond my view, they kept rummaging through a bin, pulling out artwork they’d made over the past year. One by one, they carried each piece over to where I was sitting so I could see it properly.
“Look at this!”
“This is a bear.”
“Here’s my rainbow.”
“This is a Mommy Salmon, a Daddy Salmon, and a Teenager Salmon.”
It was part art gallery, part fashion runway. They moved back and forth down the hallway, proudly presenting their work, again and again.
I loved every minute of it. And as I watched, I found myself thinking about the power of our gaze. Children want to be seen. They want to be known. They want to be delighted in.
And then I thought — adults need this too.
Maybe we’re no longer holding up paper gazelles or bees or a “whale with icebeuhhhgs,” like the one in the photo above. But I don’t think that longing disappears. I think it stays with us.
What changes is how rarely we pause long enough to really look — at one another, at what someone has made, at who someone is becoming. But when we do, something shifts. We can do a lot with our gaze.
—Renee Roederer
Smuggling Grace 