「Make someone smile everyday, but never forget that you are someone too.」
看著善良的人溫柔的話語，心裡也變得柔軟起來，也提醒我在紛亂的日子裡，不要忘記擁抱對方。
“Make someone smile everyday, but never forget that you are someone too.”
Kind words from a gentle person can loosen me up; they also remind me of the importance of giving people a hug on the rough days.
Cowrice一家有爸爸Philip、媽媽Grace、大女兒凝映和剛滿三歲的小女兒豆豆。爸媽愛攝影寫字、造皮革、縫紉等手作，沒有特定形式。最近他們舉辦了一個空間不大但心靈很滿的展覽「平行學習」，集合一家人多年的生活點滴。小女兒的第一撮頭髮、爸爸造給女兒的小皮鞋、媽媽的手縫布偶、大女兒用紙盒造給爸爸的黑膠唱盤、媽媽手捏的陶瓷杯碟就有凝映的畫。十多年的物件細碎地拼湊著生活輪廓，就像一層皮膚，能看見內在。
微微歪斜的毛筆大字寫著一家人時常放心上的語句，凝映的筆觸很好認，野性卻又感到溫柔，直接的而又有跡可尋。她從小跟著爸媽旅行，媽媽寫生她便跟著畫畫畫，她畫的The Beatles、Kurt Cobain、村上春樹和山本耀司，都透著孩子的敏感觀察。
The Cowrice family consists of Philip the father, Grace the mother, Ying Ying the older daughter, and Dou Dou the younger daughter, who just had her 3-year-old birthday. The parents enjoy photography, writing, leather crafting, and sewing, the crafts they do are not confined with any rigid forms. The family is recently having an exhibition titled Cowrice Parallel Learning. Regardless of the small scale of the exhibition, it showcases a very comprehensive and valuable collection of various family moments. Visitors can see the first strand of hair of the younger daughter, the little pair of leather shoes Philip made for his daughter, the doll made by Grace, the paper “turntable” Ying Ying made for her father, as well as the ceramic tableware made by the mother ornamented with Ying Ying’s drawing. These random objects from the past ten years are like a gateway for viewers to get to know the family.
In the exhibition, you can also see the family’s motto written with Chinese ink brush at an amateur level. This is the writing of Ying Ying, which is always wild but with a tender touch. The way she writes is so direct and has a distinctive style. Ying Ying has traveled a lot with her parents since her early childhood. The mother and daughter enjoy drawing together during their trips; while Grace is sketching from nature, Ying Ying would draw portraits of iconic figures. Looking at her drawing of The Beatles, Kurt Cobain, Haruki Murakami, and Yoji Yamamoto, you would be impressed by how detailed a child observes.
走上二樓是漫天樹葉，像雨瓣落在心房，貼著雙雙眼睛，如星星般爛漫，是一家人旅行時撿拾的旅途景色。他們喜歡鬆散的旅程，在草地大樹下躺個半天，野餐寫生發呆，到湖邊看天鵝與水鴨。旅程總是畫畫、躺著、跑著、嬉水和拾樹枝。孩子大概最懂得，毫無顧慮地尋開心，會用鼻子賞花，不用眼睛釐定。近年常讀他們的遊記，字裡行間都是對孩子赤誠的愛，媽媽的文字時常敲進內心。
「看見美景，妳立即蹲下身體在拍著透明的水，用雙手感受美麗環境是小朋友最直接的反應。可憐我們大人都用了相機來反應。」
平行學習，大概是有時你拉著我，有時我拉著你一起走。爸媽的眼睛，加上孩子的，會看見世界從未向我們展現的顏色吧。「We are better together.」
Climbing one story up to the second floor, visitors will be greeted by leaves hanging from the ceiling, which are so soothing to look at. The little craft eyes on the leaves are guarding us like the starry sky. This is perhaps the best depiction of the family’s travel experience, where they spend as much time as they want to relax in a park. They rarely have a lot of things planned for their itinerary, as having a picnic, sketching what they are seeing, and looking at the ducks and swans swimming are their favorite activities. Traveling, to them, is all about living the moment. The parents and the two daughters would lie on the grass, run around, swim in a lake or simply picking up tree branches. Having time with nature gives the children carefree moments where they learn to appreciate flowers with their noses but not their eyes. In recent years, I have read quite a lot of their travel diary, the unconditional love of Grace to her children is expressed so intimately in her words.
“Arriving at a beautiful place, you would squat to play with the clear water. It is such a straightforward reaction for kids to experience the beauty of nature with their hands. Grown-ups like us only know to react with our cameras.”
Parallel learning probably means we can all be leading one another or be led by one another. The parents seeing the world through the children’s eyes can recognize some fantastic colors that we have once overlooked because we are better together.
In the exhibition, we saw these family’s motto, written by Ying Ying.
／車到山前必有路，船到橋頭自然直
／We have to be very strong, if we want to do something very wrong.
／槿花一日自為榮，何須戀世常憂死
／Feel what you need to feel and then let it go.
／謝謝你，對不起，請原諒我，我愛你
／Tell the truth. Trust your feeling.
／It’s all going very well, no problem at all.
／When we get to the mountain, there’ll be a way through and when the boat gets to the pier-head, it will go straight with the current.
／We have to be very strong, if we want to do something very wrong.
／Hibiscus flowers proudly live only for a day, we never need to be obsessed with living and afraid of dying.
／Feel what you need to feel and then let it go.
／Thank you. Sorry. Forgive me. I love you.
／Tell the truth. Trust your feeling.
／It’s all going very well, no problem at all.
