From Ali (cleaning out desk )

:I was cleaning out my desk this evening and I came across this story Ali wrote for me

A Beautiful Mess (for Rickie, a beautiful mess maker...and, of course, his Mother)

She stood at the threshold of his room, her legs unwilling to enter. His little mind, his little fingers, beautiful in their own right, had created this beautiful mess, and now, as she stood with each hand supporting her frame in the frame of his doorway, she remembered that she had to destroy it.

She sighed.

Through the windows, beams of evening light created glitter as they passed through the dust he had created with sand and baby powder. The glitter was also ground into his blue carpeting, on his trains, and like the fine dust of a butterfly's wings, it rested gently on the heads of two sleeping dolls.

Earlier in his play, when he had been less gentle, his little legs had stood on top of chairs and tables, distributing stickers to every inch of his walls. The walls of h is room were white, and his stickers popped with color, smiling like the tender buds of a spring garden still covered with its winter blanket.

And so again, the mother sighed. What was she to do but destroy this spring garden? Wipe off the dust of the butterfly's wings? In creating order, she would have to desecrate the magic of her son's room, and as she took her first tentative step into his haven, she realized that no other picture would ever capture his imagination, his beauty so clearly as this room, his beautiful mess.

Written by my daughter Ali

Thank you Ali. I'm glad I cleaned out my desk tonight.