Create Smiles

We have been doing a lot of cleaning and packing and moving things to a storage unit and sorting and just starting the whole process of selling our condo and moving.  It's been AWESOME!!!  I LOVE being prepared!  I LOVE being organized -- can't STAND disaster areas that require warning signs to avoid law suits.  Our office WAS such an area -- I mean, I didn't even dare step in there to take a picture.  But NOW . . . well, it is going to be my creativity suite . . . right after it's Lexy and Kenzie's bedroom for a week and a half while my sister stays with me to help me recover from upcoming foot surgery number 2. Yay for sisters and nieces and nephews and surgery . . . wait, maybe I wouldn't go QUITE that far! :-)

As we sorted through things today, I found this poem that I wrote for David while we were dating.  He was having a hard time with "dead week" and finals week, and I wanted to do something to cheer him up.  So I went to the Dollar Store to look for things for that all-time favorite dating tool - the "Good Luck Kit."  I couldn't find the "right thing" there for the life of me!  Instead, I found these cute stickers of toddlers playing at the beach.  I bought a pack of 12x12 paper, took out the sun-shiniest piece (bright yellow, of course) in there, and wrote the following:

Lessons from the SEA:

When life doesn't go

Exactly as you've planned,

And the only castles you are building

Seem to be in the sand;

When the waves come in

And the sun is setting low . . .

You look down to find

That a crab just got your toe!

When you've got your diving gear on

And feel you are prepared to dive,

Then the storm comes in and . . .

Swimming as fast as you can . . .

You come out barely alive!

You think, "Hey!  Wait a minute!

This was supposed to be FUN!"

But you forget you're doing more

Than just basking in the sun.

And though you really could just stay atop

And play all the day long . . .

The adventures lying just out of reach

Beckon oh so strong!

So you shake off the sand,

Tell your toe to let it be,

And you just keep

Swimming, swimming, swimming

Like other fish who have

Joined the SEA!

Okay, I will be the FIRST to admit that it's corny!  And I am sad to admit how much I fought back and was victorious over the urge to alter it here to present a better poem to you than the one I originally wrote.

But what would be the point of that?  Because the other truth is that I wrote it in like five minutes and it made me SMILE.  It actually lit me up inside to write it for him!  And it made Dave SMILE.  It made him laugh and lit him up inside to receive it!  And it made us both smile time and time again as we have found it in the office and re-lived that little memory of me trying to make him happy when there was nothing else I could do to make the situation better.  And reading it in terms of finals and education and career dreams and LIFE . . . it's a great pick-me-up poem! :-)

And I re-learned something about myself today: I like to create smiles and laughter through creative writing!  I have always written these crazy little poems and done "Get Well Baskets" and "Candy Bar Posters" and "Singing Telegrams" and songs and date stories and things like that.  I kick myself for not keeping copies to help preserve a little bit of "me" for both myself and my children to discover time and time again.

But that means I have to make up for lost time, right?  And I am really excited tonight to remember this.  This is something that is me!  This is a  talent!  This is a desire of my heart!  This is a hobby I can have that doesn't compete with Dave's hobbies!  I like to write!  I like to make people smile!  I like to make people laugh!  I like to create in this way!

So I need to get back to developing it.  My friend Anne and I have talked for years about writing Children's books -- a talent Dave has told me almost since we started dating that I definitely have and would be really great at.  And I think I'm ready to start exploring that again!  I mean, I have children -- and they love books!