It’s bubble bursting Monday . . . .
This post might be jumbled because there are so many things running through my mind. I am going to try and start with what woke me up this morning. Doing something different today. Somewhere at the beginning of the year I read an encouragement to do something out of the ordinary. Something you would not naturally do. Two things, small things, but yet things I realized I did not do in my life were, to make something for myself and in writing, make an outline first. UGH!
I hated outlines in school; I thought they were a total waste of time. But I am giving this some thought with a couple of my books. In doing this, I realized that I start with an inspirational thought and take off like a bullet and usually get half to three-quarters through and . . . fizz! Where am I going with this? So I am going to sit the next couple of days and storyboard these two books.
One of them came to me through one of the prompts for the writing class I am taking. It was, “what is your favorite possession? And if possible bring it to class.” Mine, without a doubt, after being told of course that we could not name family or pets… is something my son gave me, a tea set. I LOVE THIS GIFT. It has given me countless hours of happiness. And it has triggered my quirky imagination. As I read my paper to the class and showed them my ‘cuties’ (see picture below) I did so with animation and their participation. In other words I brought them with me and let them talk to the class. They all said I should bring them alive in a book. So that is one thought that is whirling around in my head.
The other thing I am in the process of doing differently is I am making myself one of the memory plates. This has been a challenge. I keep asking myself why. But I have forged ahead and now that empty spot on my table beside me is no longer vacant. I filled my plate with pictures of five of my closest friends and all the things I shared with each one of them. I added autumn leaves, and will find three other things that I personally love, pumpkins, roosters and hens and books. I can do this in time, because this one isn’t going anywhere. It’s mine. Something I have not ever said while making a craft. They always start out with the intention of being for someone else.
While making this one another major thought came to the surface. While trying to avoid leaving brush marks in the sealer, I switched to a sponge brush. It did not leave brush marks, it left bubbles! As it dried all I could see were hundreds of tiny bubbles making the plate look rough. For days I wondered what I could do to fix it. All I saw every time I looked at it were the bubbles, the mistake. I completely lost sight of my pictures in the middle, all five friends and all the things I have loved about them and my own personal loves.
The bubbles became the focus of my plate. Then yesterday, when I glanced at it while feeling a little lonely it wasn’t the bubbles I needed or even wanted to look at. I looked past them to the faces and objects of these five friends I have had throughout my life and everything my eyes fell across brought back memories of just why we had been friends. All the laughter with Marie, Christmas projects, and all the baking we did. Raising our kids with Gerri. Going through common struggles and supporting one another with sometimes nothing more than a word.
Learning to accept things with Hope. Seeing the difference in our relationship and finding so many things we would have lost if we had let those differences separate us. With Linda all the love and patience and kindness we each had to help each other nurture in our common impatient and sometimes critical personalities. We were each other’s testing ground and then going through losing her to cancer. And understanding what unconditional love is like with Teresa. Fishing, fishing and fishing. Spontaneous four-wheeler rides at
I don’t know what your ‘bubbles’ are, but we all have them. And usually in light of the whole picture they are often small and insignificant like the tiny bubbles on my plate. I don’t care about them being there; in fact I am glad it happened. It woke up something in me that is going to strengthen each new day.
I don’t care about the bubbles any more. So what? Really . . . ask yourself, so what? Who really cares? So there are bubbles and the plate has some flaws. How wrong I would be to let those bubbles override all the happiness and joy I had with these five friends. If they were all here right now I am sure they’d want to know they meant more to me than a few bubbles and ask me why I couldn’t look past the bubbles to what the plate really represents in my life.These friends were people who did not make bubbles in my life. I am through with people like that.
So today rather than saying, “don’t let me burst your bubble”, I am hoping to burst a few bubbles for you today and gave you the freedom to say, “Who cares?”; So your life has a few bubbles or a lot of bubbles, so does mine. I am sure there will be people who look at this plate and they will instantly see the craftsmanship of it is flawed with all the bubbles and miss all the good stuff on it because they can’t get past my bubbles. And amazingly enough, I’ll be able to say, “What bubbles? I don’t see any bubbles.”
Aren't these just the cuties things you have ever seen?
What wonderful memories . . . for me!
No comments:
Post a Comment