Afternoon Lessons

I've been painting in the afternoons.

It's been my time to listen to my music.  To play with the colors I want.  It's been my time to refill and reflect and to just be.

I'm convinced that God grants us talents not just to be shared or for us to feel better about ourselves.  I'm convinced God has given each of us specific talents as a way to understand Him and His eternal principles.

The other day I'm painting; struggling to tap into my right brain where creativity lives and thrives.  I can't seem to get the color I want.  Every color I come up with doesn't belong.  It isn't right.  Then I realize I'm working too purely.  I need to dirty my color so it can recede and let the other colors appear more vivid.  So I mix my pure yellows and oranges with blue and let the color get muddy and rich.  I slide my brush through the earthiness and place a single brushstroke. It works and my subject reads beautifully.

I'm looking at this color I've created.  By itself it's yucky.  As a whole the color is purposeful and lovely.  In fact, it's my favorite part of the piece.

Then I catch the lesson.  I get the familiar overwhelming rush of warmth that lets me know what I'm feeling is true and important.  Every experience here on this earth is necessary for my overall growth.  Not just the happy times.  Every time I struggle.  Every time it seems things are yucky and I can't seem to make heads or tails of it.  It's simply a part of the whole.  It's that swipe of dirty color that makes the overall picture beautiful and meaningful.

Now when I look at that swipe; that simple brushstroke that recedes into the background I will think of the empathy I've developed.  The kindness.  The humility.  Slowly I learn the peace that comes from understanding this principle.  To accept the bad with the good.  That trials have their place in my development.

Mostly I learn to enjoy all the colors that I create.

His First Obsession

 It's times like these that I wish I had a video camera.  It all began when I was invited to go see Toy Story 3 with my sister and her kids.  Logan had never been inside a movie theater so I had no idea what to expect.  He was an angel.  He parked himself on my mom's lap, got himself a lifetime supply of popcorn, and started shoveling buttery bits of popcorn for 2 straight hours.  My mom thought he was asleep.  What was mistaken for sleep was post-popcorn fatigue while basking in a larger than life wave of lights and colors from the movie screen.  This boy was hooked.

I first realized the obsession when we walked into Target and saw a gigantic sign of Buzz and Woody.  I thought Logan was having some sort of fit.  Nope.  Pure joy at seeing his new best friends.  I had to tear him away from the sign which only meant I had 15 minutes of complete toddler meltdown at Target.

Then came Sam's Club.  I saw that Toy Story 1 and 2 were on sale for $12.  I thought they would make lovely Christmas presents for Logan.  Think again.  When I tried to take the movies from Logan he looked at me with fire in his eyes that said, "Over my dead body, Woman!"

Since then he has probably watched Toy Story over 20 times.  He sings (and conducts) to the introduction, he knows his favorite parts and screams at his not so favorite parts.  When it is over he begs me to put in the second one.  When I don't or when I interrupt the movie to, I don't know, FEED HIM, I know I have Toddler Hell to Pay. 

In the car today I put in a Disney CD that I had found and "You've Got A Friend In Me" came on.  Oh, the joy!!  He was ecstatic!  It was as if Woody and Buzz were in the car with him!  He "la-la-ed" the entire song.  When it was over he screamed until I played it again.  And again.  And again.  I now loathe that song.

I know this should drive me crazy but it actually makes me really happy.  He has his first passion.  Now I can write in his baby book that when Logan was 2 he was OBSESSED with Toy Story.

It's all good!