It’s February already! Valentine’s day has always been one of my favorite holidays. I can still remember being in elementary school and feeling the excited anticipation of being able to do something special for each of my classmates.
I can still smell the white school paste that held together the menagerie of scavenged bits and pieces of paper and ribbon, buttons and jewels and white paper doilies that adorned my shoe box conglomeration that had been transformed into a valentine mailbox masterpiece, a fitting receptacle for any tender sentiments my classmates might offer me!
As I sat to write a personal note on the back of the store bought valentines I was sure every other kid probably bought, I thought about what I could say that could turn that piece of cardboard with a cute picture on it into something more meaningful. for the recipient. Then I would think about the classmate it was addressed to and what it was about them that made them special.
Had they been kind to me, included me at recess, smiled at me over the lunch table, paid me a compliment, been a friend, stood by my side, defended me, comforted me when I was sad, or even more wonderful, had I witnessed them displaying that kind of goodness in behalf of someone else? As I tried to honor their goodness in my very best cursive, albeit barely legible third grade handwriting, I often found myself running out of room. Their was never a shortage of nice things I could think of to say about them.
The blessing from this exercise was that it made me start thinking about what my classmates thought of me. Did they see me in the same light? Would they be able to recall anything nice about me to write on the back of the valentine that would be deposited in my tacky yet, oh so exquisite box? What kind of friend had I been?
When the time finally came to open our valentine treasure chests I waited to see my classmates open their valentine I had given to them. Nothing in my box ever surpassed how it made me feel to see the smile on their faces after they had read about their acknowledged goodness as witnessed by a fellow human. It was a lesson I never forgot.
I often get to the end of a long hard day and start feeling entitled to a private pity party, thinking no one knows how hard I worked, or what I accomplished, or how exhausted I am. In essence, there were no valentine affirmations in my well deserving box.
Then I remember how I felt as I watched someone else open their valentine affirmations and the joy it not only brought to them, but to me as well. I quickly text or call or write a handwritten note to someone to express my gratitude and miraculously, my empty box is full!
“Heart To Heart” is a physical manifestation of this phenomenon. The organic plant matter and synthetic substrate represent the amalgamation of the material elements that were collected to decorate my third grade valentine’s box. The mineral glass, when viewed from above, forms the shape of a heart. The rose colored resin that coats it, represents the joy and satisfaction that distilled on the heart of a child, as the experience became a memory and a treasured life time lesson of the joy of serving another, Heart To Heart.
Enjoy