I met this young lady at an art workshop. As we were all waiting for it to begin, I heard a soft voice from behind me, “Hey sis, do you want to draw on your shoebox? I have lots of pencils” I turned around and saw her sitting in a corner, pencil in hand, focused on sketching on a black shoebox. She didn’t even look up, just lost in her drawing. I mumbled, “Mmm, yeah…” I wasn’t sure what to draw anyway, so I figured I’d just add a few random lines to my shoebox.
I sat down next to her and grabbed a blue pencil. As she leaned in to see what I was drawing, I felt a little nervous. I quickly sketched a few lines and some dots on my shoebox. She glanced back at hers and said, “Alright, I’m going to draw a flower.” I smiled and thought, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Without skipping a beat, she started giving me instructions while working on her own shoebox: “Draw a flower here… like this… then color it like this…” I just sat there, watching her completely immersed in her world of drawing and responding to her with a quiet “Mmm, okay…”
We carried on like this for almost five minutes, just chatting and drawing, until the actual workshop started.
Her name is Mật Ong, which means Honey. She was about 7 years old, with big black eyes that were always hiding behind her hair bangs. At first, she came across as quiet, but once you got close enough, she’d open up and start telling you all about the dogs and cats that lived in her dad’s backyard.
She was also really into climbing. Once she showed me her secret spot near the studio – a scrapyard where she practiced climbing every weekend. It was her little hidden world, and she was so excited to share it with me.
It was such a beautiful time spent with this young lady. She surprised me with the way she saw the world around her – her thoughts were so full of wonder and creativity. It felt like she was always finding new perspectives in the most ordinary things. I walked away from that day feeling a little more open to the small, hidden joys in life, thanks to Mật Ong.