For art this week, my daughter drew a rainbow elephant while my son made a rainbow turkey. Both pictures stand on their own, leaving a lot unsaid. They also make room for the pictures themselves to tell a story too. And so naturally, I asked my kids to tell a story about their pictures. For my daughter, it was all about telling the unusual story of a rainbow elephant and a rainbow turkey in a forest full of animals and a little girl, wondering why they are so colorful. Wanting colors for herself too, the little girl asked the elephant if he could give her a color. He did. Next she asked the rainbow turkey for some colors and he also gave some. Just when you think the little girl is going to to do something fun with the colors, my daughter ends her story, wondering what her mother would think now that she possess colors.

Like the initial pictures of the rainbow elephant and the rainbow turkey, even my daughter’s story still leaves so much unsaid, inviting you the reader, like an invisible ink, to continue to write or paint the story and image however you want. It’s your story after all. And you can paint or tell it however your want. That’s is the keep I’m reflecting on today as the year starts to come to an end. 2020 has pushed me and made me so alert to the significance of my own story however unusual it maybe, like a rainbow elephant or a rainbow turkey. You only get a glimpse of it with these keeps that I have become so passionate to share. And after reading, the ball is in your court to decide whether anything I shared is worth keeping. It’s my attempt to bask in all aspects of my story, building what matters, adapting where necessary particularly with homeschooling, but securing what matters too and reminding myself always why they matter. This is why I started this keep list. To stay alert to my story, all of it, every day. It’s my story, all of it, and 2020 has helped me become alert to telling it, my way, as unusual as it may be. Keep telling your own story, even if it includes a rainbow elephant, a rainbow turkey.