Up close, a pointillist painting looks like random little dots. Only when you step back, you realize those meaningless flecks of color form a picture.

The Papal Palace at Avignon by Paul Signac

When you’re a mother of small children, each day is filled with little moments. By themselves, they seem insignificant.

One little dot: Finding an injured squirrel. Making sure it was tended. We brought down a diaper box. One neighbor gave the squirrel water and Cheerios. Other neighbors with a car drove it to a wildlife rescue center.

That evening, the girls played vet with their little stuffed animals, taking care of them just like the injured squirrel.

What I hope for the big picture: Sonya and Leena remember to have compassion for all creatures, great and small.

One little dot: A few weeks ago, Sonya planted a community garden with her daycare. They continue to tend the plants.

At the playground yesterday, Sonya and her friend spent an entire afternoon filling buckets with sand, carefully planting weeds and grasses they pulled from the fence line, and watering them with shushing noises.

What I hope for the big picture: Our family continues to participate in civic projects and our girls grow up being active in our local community.

There are so many other little dots each day— from how we greet each other in the morning when we first wake up to how we come together at Candle Time before we go to sleep. All the positive encouragement, discipline, and guidance the girls hear throughout the week. Dot by dot, that’s how Sonya and Leena form their self-image.

What I hope for the big picture: My girls feel a sense of belonging, acceptance, and gratitude throughout their life. Wherever they are.

Right now, in the day to day, in the dot to dot, it’s easy to go cross-eyed trying to be deliberate and painstaking about what I’m painting. All those little little little dots. It’s hard to take a step back, to evaluate the BIG picture. Dot dot dot…