Niky Rahner:

I was born 1983 to a brilliant and wise horticulturist and to a gentle
soft spoken mother.

I was blessed to have a simple and rich early childhood running free on a
plot in Benoni. With the two most fantastic companions,my younger brother
and our older sister.

We woke up free to spend our days running wild. We had roofs to
climb,gardens to eat out of,mud to bath in,duck ponds to wash off
in,animals to mother, Gogo to cook with and a room…called the play room.

In this room you were free to do anything without one single thought for
consequence…

We had a table who’s legs were made to grow with us. I have a memory of my
small hands and arms,covered in that very swampy green paint that is a
common sign of having gone way to far,my fingers running little waves all
along the edge of our table. With only my brother and sister,streaks of
swamp in their messy hair, and swamp on their laughing faces that came
closer and went away, and came closer again, as they lent backwards and
forwards, basically doing some sort of breast stroke on the spot in the
paint.

So much paint,so much canvas,so much freedom. In a room where, if you
wanted to, you could open a suitcase of kokies and colour in the tiny
blocks of the linoleum floor pattern,melt your wax crayons,make the dogs
use their feet as your stamps or try paint white stars and red hearts in
gouache on one of our black cats. You just did whatever it was you found
yourself doing with a endless, magical supply of material.

And when you got bored,or tired or cold or hungry, you left and got looked
after. And when you got bored again,or had slept,or eaten or swam or
bathed,you could go back and everything would have been put back together
and cleaned,ready for you to start over again. Who had the magic wand? Who
washed the animals? I still must wonder…

As we often find ourselves saying, ‘all good things must come to a end’.
One of them being childhood, and the bliss of having nothing but a
clear,innocent slate,ready to be fill with anything that comes.

All that came for us in those few precious years was the freedom to be. To
be very free and very untouched, and completely untainted by any need or
worry,in a world made just the right size for us.

A time to grow always comes. We did. Life happened,times changed and then
changed and changed again. We all have to feel and learn and experience
and grow and change and grow again.

A lot of life has happened since then and now I have a bigger world to
explore, my own material to find and collect,people and animals to mother
and love,and I have a garage…called my garage. Where I once again have
the freedom a complete abundance of material brings. It took me a long
time to realize it but everything I wanted has been all around me,waiting
for me to take it at anytime.

This is my freedom,this is my bliss,this is what I want to enjoy.

I sincerely hope that you too enjoy it.