Life.Learning.Doodles… are Heck Awesome!
Today is Kirsten from The Kir Corner’s birthday.
To help celebrate her birthday I have decided that I am serving cupcakes.
I have two free printables for you celebrating all things Kirsten…. cupcakes, life and friendship.
So please pull up a chair an help yourself to some!!
Download, print, share and then head over to Kirsten’s and wish her a Happy Birthday!!!
Kirsten Piccini of The Kir Corner is nothing new to this space. I have talked about her often here. Now if you told Kirsten that she was inspiring… no not inspiring… I would go so far as to call her my muse… she would smile (I imagine she would and share huge pearly white make you have to smile too smile) and politely say, “Oh, Laverne it isn’t me that is inspiring it is you sweetie!” Regardless of what she thinks, she inspires my quite frequently. Someone who inspires me this often can only rightfully be described as my muse.
Which brings us all to her latest inspiration…
Kirsten had been going through a rough patch in November. Painful life events, coupled with the changing seasons and some other things had left her sad. I think it is something we all can relate to. I know I can. I had noticed in November the absence of her make you smile, then giggle, then cry posts (what! a lot of her posts make me cry happy tears). I also noticed that her fantastically written stories that took me to another place and left me lost in a world of romance, passion and emotion posts had been fewer. Now the average reader may not suspect any change. I likened it to the bustle of the holidays, working full time and being a mom/wife. It often leaves very little time for blogging. So when Kirsten shared her post on Facebook it not only made sense to me, but it also inspired me!
You see wrapped up in the words of her Facebook post were also simple words about being deeply grateful for some of the things in her life. As I read the post I was instantly moved to want to flood her with gratitude and joy. Actually, I wanted to get in my car, drive out East, knock on her door, give her a huge hug and cry until it was all better. Well, that wasn’t going to happen so I decided I was going to do a link up and we would all share our joy and show everyone that when we all look at life have a lot of good in it. I was going to smother the blogosphere with happiness.
Note: When you have an idea to bring together tens of bloggers for a link up in December best not to have the idea 3 days before December… doesn’t work so well for planning and getting others on board. Also, not the best idea to be overly ambitiously when planning. For example, aiming to post for 30 days in a row while working full time, spending time with my family and then thinking I was going to run a blog link up and promote it all. I just going to go on pretending that my ambitiousness is cute… but seriously what the HECK was I thinking.
So yesterday I began. Little old me. All by myself. No link up. No big promoting. No 30 days. Just me and my 12 days. 12 Days of Joy that I will share with whoever visits this space. 12 days of noticing the little things in my life. 12 days of noticing the little things we do everyday that we miss but when you really stop and notice bring you joy. Most of all I will share my 12 days of joy for a friend I adore and who’s happiness and heart warms my life. I will share because she reminded me how important it is to look and find joy in our lives!
A year and a half ago writing to me meant I was writing a report. Sentences were a string of words put together with a subject and a predicate. Writing was done simply to communicate. My box of crayons was nothing but a box of 8. Black, gray and white got the most use.
Then I started blogging (thank you Shirley). Through link ups, twitter, getting to know other bloggers, writing for and with other blogger my writing started to change. Writing was no longer to just communicate information. It became about painting a picture. I started to pick up a color or two here and there to add to my box.
I read, I watched, I learned and I started to push myself out of my comfort zone. I started to write from places in my heart that had not been tuned into in too long. I began to write about parts of my life and memories that hurt. I began to heal. Suddenly by box of colors began to overflow. Each color gathered from giving a piece of myself to my writing, healing parts of my heart that had been in pain or from crafting my voice.
New friends came into my life and suddenly my collection changed. Each amazing person I meet and friend I made brought with them a color to share with me. These are the most unique, dazzling and radiant colors of all.
Today I am a box of 8 overflowing with colors laying all over the desk. Some of the crayons I have earned. Some of them I have collected. Some have been left as gifts.
As I sprinkle, color, and paint my words with these colors each time I write, I have a desk of crayons that I could not even have begun to imagine I’d ever possess. Radiant colors, the ones that dazzle, primary colors are solid and reliable, earth tones that depth and layers and my black, white and gray create foundation and strength. And what a collection it is!
What kind of box of crayons are you?
This piece was inspired by Kirsten from The Kir Corner: Her space is one of my most favorite spaces to visit. I visit frequently. Her ability to weave and knit words together not only leave me amazed at her infinite talent but on more then one occasion have left me absolutely
Last week Kirsten at The Kir Corner wrote a post titled: I’m Every Color. She shared a piece of an email a friend had written to her.inspired! And if you are lucky enough to have her visit your space you are sue to be the recipient of the most amazingly sweet and touching comments.
“I think of people as boxes of crayons. Most men/women are a box of 8, 16 if they are lucky. They couldn’t possibly conceive of ideas drawn by someone with a box with more crayons – they don’t have the palette. I’m lucky – I may be a box of 64 with the built-in sharpener, but I married a designer. He’s at least a box of 32!
You, my beautiful girl, are a limited edition box of 128 with the built in drawing table and collectors case. You can’t conceive of others not being able to understand what you see.“
It was Kirsten’s awww and disbelief of her own box of crayons and the realization she came to at the end of her post that inspired this. I hope that it might inspire you to share what box of crayons you are too!
