story beads

I truly believe that we are all called by a higher power to be creative.

The act of making something new and valuable is the driving force behind the tallest buildings, the tastiest meals, the most vibrant paintings, the most heart-wrenching lyrics, that is what it means to be creative.

People frequently tell me they are not creative. Does that ever happen to you? Usually this occurs in response to seeing some sort of art that I have created. At that point, I tell them that they are indeed creative. I will argue with them, passionately, if need be.

We are each creative in our own way. My creativity comes through in my art, in pushing beads around and wrangling them into something more beautiful together than they might be by themselves, in seeing the possibility in things that are not even typically used for making adornments, in telling the story of the person who is wearing a personal talisman that I will manifest just for them.

It doesn’t mean that other people are not creative, it just means that they are not creative in the same way as I am. That sort of negative comparison is so detrimental. But we all do it. We look at our friend who is an amazing scrapbooker and takes the time to document her children’s life story so beautifully and we find fault in our own inability to even put one picture in a frame, despite the fact that we have all the paper and embellishments in the world (maybe even a mini scrapbook store in their basement… ahem!). We see those who have a perfectly ordered household with beautiful art on the walls, a place for everything, a knack for arranging furniture in such a way that is is so welcoming and think that we don’t measure up because the dust bunnies in our own house compete with the spiders weaving fortresses and the piles are threatening to topple over and bury you under an avalanche.

(Or is that just me?)

We are all called to be creative, whether that creativity comes through in making the world’s best creme brulee, or raising really compassionate children, or painting portraits, or coaxing gardens into bloom, or making beads that tell a story and jewelry that makes people happy.

I just wrote a post about a dear man who recently passed away. His name was Erv and he was a larger than life personality. Erv gave me that mug above for my 20th birthday on August 11, 1988. It is amazing that I have kept this mug all these years; in fact, I used those words to make a bulletin board in my classroom each fall to greet my new group of students when I was a 7th grade English teacher so many years ago. Last week I shared the story of how I received this mug with his grieving daughter and dear granddaughter. They were incredibly touched by the story, but not at all surprised. He lived that statement and he truly believed that we could do anything.

And that last line, about being a child of God really resonated with me. So of course it came through in my creative way as a new Story Tube bead in my Simple Truths line.

YOU are a 

child of GOD & 

with credentials 

like that you can 

DO ANYTHING

Soon I will be offering these in my Etsy Shop, but as a belated birthday
gift from me to you, I would like to give away one of them. (I am also giving away two more, for a total of three, through my blog: Treasures Found. Feel free to enter there as well. But there will only be three individual winners total.)

[NOT the new beads, but these are other Story Beads so you get the idea ;-)]

I am ready to put the finishing touches on them. Right now they are
‘naked’ without any color [the beads above will just give you an idea of
what they will look like]. I haven’t painted them yet, so YOU get to
choose the colors. [I think they look best in a wash of 2-3 tones. Your
choice.] You can choose silver or copper for the metal.

But here is the twist… if you win, you have to agree to do a little blog reveal with me in a few weeks, on Friday, September 20th. I want to see how this message and this bead inspire you!

So, who is with me?