mum23

Thank you to mdawrcn for passing the baton on to me for the next Mugdots Challenge.

This challenge will ask you to illustrate a moment in your life which has helped to shape you into the person that you are today.

It may be a moment in history which has been witnessed by millions around the world, or it may be a part of your history only. Maybe you have read a book or poem, or heard a piece of music which has had a profound effect on you... perhaps even changed the course of your life. You may like to look to childhood experiences and memories, or maybe something happened only last week….

All of us have many moments, memories, people and experiences in our past which have led us to where we are now. I hope that you will feel able to share some of these moments in your lives with the rest of us!

I look forward to seeing what you all come up with. The challenge will run to midnight TD time on 18 July and I’ll pass the baton sometime the following day.

Have fun!

mum23

Just to start things off, here's one of my such 'moments'.

This image has come to symbolise the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989. Students and intellectuals wanted changes to the Chinese government's authoritarianism and called for economic change and democratic reform. It is thought that about 3000 people were killed during the protests. The identity and fate of this man have never been disclosed by the Chinese government.

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=111922

I have many beautiful moments which have helped me to become who I am today, but this image had, and still has, a profound effect on me.

mdawrcn

Excellent idea for challenge. Very thought provoking and cause for soul searching.

clorophilla

Definitively Defining moment for the whole umanity!

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=111989

mum23

Hooray - one entry already! Thanks clorophilla... what a beauty! Of course, this moment just had to be here!

polenta

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=112068

My son was given a plastic board game full of letters of the alphabet at about the age of two. He was eager to know the names of the letters and he learned very quickly. Then he wanted me to teach him how to read. Since Spanish is very phonetic I tried to tell him the pronunciation of each letter and he never got it... He said;"You are mean, you don't want to teach me".... This scene was repeated many times until at about 4 years of age I explained to him the pronunciation of each letter and THERE IT WAS!!!! He understood that each letter was the graphic expression of a sound. The next day he was reading a comic.... and asked to read it aloud.... HE DID SO.... AND WITH INCREDIBLE FLUENCY!!!

It was a defining moment in his life and in mine!!! Knowing the alphabet is different from knowing how to read.

suzze

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=112101
Today my oldest daughter got on the train and headed to the city for orientation for the collage that she with start in a month. I become overwhelmed with tones of emotions as the train departs. Is she ready to start her new life soon, did I do an OK job raising her to be ready. She is most likely ready, but to tell you the truth. This mom is not ready to let her go. So I sit and draw her with tears. I hope the drawing OK, I have never taking any art except for grade school.

clorophilla

Dear Suzze, My son (25 yrs) rent an apartment and went to live by himself last January; and my daughter (19 yrs) has fallen in love and has her first boyfriend (this happened just last week).

I'm very proud and happy for them, and trust them they are ready to evolve in their lives, but... so unready myself...
I can guess very well how do you feel!!

mum23

Although my children are still (thankfully) too young to be starting their lives on their own, I'm aways conscious that my time with them is so brief, and that there is so much that they need to be taught, and learn for themselves, in that short space of time. I'm sure that when our time comes, I won't be ready either. Thank you for sharing, Suzze... thinking of you!

And polenta, your 'moment' is perfect, too! I can relate so well to yours too, as I am teaching my children at home. When they first grasp the concept that those symbols represent sounds is such a huge step in learning to read, which in turn is such a big step in finding out about our wonderful world. Thank you!

polenta

It seems that defining moments in our own lives have so much to do with motherhood for any woman.
Let's see if someone comes up with other things. This is such an awesome thread!!!!
And the defining moments for mankind..... my Good Lord.... also fantastic!!!

clorophilla

and nopw something completely different.
Some times, The defining moments happenes many years before we was born...
It was so many centuries ago, yet I can't put up with the thought of what happened whend the Alexandria Library was fired...
Now, today, all of us are carrying the consequencies of that catastrophe...
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=112160

polenta

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=112172

This is a defining moment in mankind's history. When man realized that a seed could grow into a plant and therefore man could be the owner of his food instead of only gathering or collecting what nature gave him.
From then on, man could spare food for later when he harvested and some people could eat without having to devote their whole day to fishing or collecting food...... and could use their brain to be more human, to think, to do art, to invent.............................................

clorophilla

And here I am with MY defining moments. The key moments in my life were when I gave birth to my son and to my daughter:
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=112226

mum23

Thank you, clorophilla for your enthusiastic participation in this challenge!!

Your gentle and beautiful picture of giving birth is so touching.... thank you for bringing us this most wondrous of moments.

The destruction of the Alexandria Library was such a loss for humanity. The world becomes a poorer place when ancient wisdoms and artefacts are destroyed. Unfortunately, war and intolerance mean that this sort of desecration is still happening.

polenta, thank you for your depiction of the Agricultural Revolution. Wouldn't the world be a different place if that had never happened?

mum23

I wanted to add this picture to depict one of my defining moments...

"To Kill a Mockingbird"
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=112225

I first read this book at the age of 12. I vividly remember my disbelief, outrage and sadness that such unjustice could exist in the world. My childhood innocence and notion that the world was all goodness and light were shattered by the events and attitudes that Harper Lee so courageously wrote about.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

five

Challenger

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=112229

mum23

Thanks five.... yet another of those unforgettable defining moments!

mum23

.... oh dear... where is that edit button? I meant 'injustice'....

Hazer

My daughter phoned me to turn on the television. After I watched in horror the scene that unfolded, I remember watching the unfamiliar airplanes silently descend to our airport...and then how strange it felt when the skies were empty. http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=112259

mum23

A friend rang us and told us to turn on the television, too. It was early morning here.... we watched in horror as the events were broadcast in a live coverage all that morning. I remember noting the date (by then it was 12 September here) and thinking this was going to do down as one of those days that nobody alive on that day would forget... Thank you, Hazer.