
The vast majority of families take at least one vacation a year which usually involves traveling to a foreign city and seeing the sights of the downtown area. Yet there are challenges in traveling with young children which can result in added stress for the parents. A stay in a Toronto hotel alone while on business is a completely different experience from that of staying at a downtown hotel with two young children. Often by simply doing some research ahead of time, these stresses can be eliminated altogether.
I was 20 years old when my love affair with coloring was re-ignited. Just about to fly home on a 14 hour flight from New Zealand, I was in the airport book store looking for a magazine to pass some hours when my eye was caught by an intriguing looking coloring book. I thought to myself: 14 hour flight....why not try coloring? Armed with a box of pencil crayons and not really expecting my interest to last long, I fastened my seat belt as the plane began its take-off. Thinking full well that the coloring would only last a few minutes before I was lured into the mega-selection of in-flight movies, I was curiously surprised when 30 minutes passed...then an hour...and then 2 hours and I had not even checkout out the movie selection! I had finished my first page in my brand new coloring book and still had 12 hours of flying time left. The rest of the flight passed quickly and gloriously. My love for coloring has only deepened, and here are the reasons why.
The art of coloring is a simple joy. All you need is a coloring book and your choice of tools. From here you can immerse yourself fully into the craft without agonizing about what to make, how to read the pattern, and how will it turn out? Coloring is a a form of meditation. There is something truly hypnotizing that happens with you sit down with a fresh box of pencil crayons, choose the color that jumps out at you and begin your journey into the page. Time loses its grip on the mind and enables the color-er to become present in the moment, in the line and in the color gliding onto the paper.