lessons learned

found object
munich, germany

Every Friday, my daughter lugs an incredibly heavy school bag home with her for us to review her weekly progress over the weekend. Maths. German. How the ear works. What not to do in a fire. The usual.

In addition to leafing through her books, I take the chance to go through it trying to keep it more as an organized schoolbag than trash can, removing orphaned sheets of scribble, empty juice bottles, wrinkled & tired sweaters. The usual.

This weekend, however, I came across something rather unusual: an itsy bitsy stub-of-a-pencil. How wonderful is it?! It made me think of so many things:

Burning the candle at both ends.
Mother vs. Designer.
Resourcefulness.
Maximizing.
Optimizing.
Never giving up.
Balance.
Innovation.
Quality.
Abandoning rules.
Screw conformity!
Necessity.

A simple, beautiful and oh-so-tiny object offering up such important lessons. Can it be that we learn the most from life's unexpected finds?