"Salmon spend their early lives in rivers, and them swim out to the sea where they live their adult lives and gain most of their body mass. When they have matured, they return to the rivers." Wikipedia

We spend our early lives in the safety of our families. There we have the freedom to be ourselves: to sing off key, jump in puddles and paint pictures of people with oversized heads and sticks for arms. We learn who we are and what we innately like and dislike. When we start school, we soon discover that safety takes a different form...we must blend in to be safe. No more dancing when we feel like it... bursts of laughter are frowned upon and when we colour grass is green, sky is blue and the sun is yellow.

When we get unleashed into the world we have learned our lessons so well that we water down our true character and become master chameleons in the big world. Putting on the appropriate mask for each occasion. Praise is relished on us if we are responsible, stoic and if we put our heads down and work hard. But where's the joy in that? How will we know when we are truly happy?

At some point, as we mature, a little voice, from deep down inside, says "hey, I'm still here". A voice that you hardly recognize after all these years of wearing a mask. The voice of your true character; the belly laughing, tap dancing, finger painting free spirit that you are... and you realize it's time to head back to the river. Back to the safety of family. Back to that place and time that you laughed uncontrollably. Is it possible? Is it safe? To swim upstream, against the current societal thinking and back to our creative, spirited self? Upstream.