Dare To Share Your HeART With The World

I was going to write a completely different blog post today.  

I had all the ideas, the photos...and then...

THIS happened.

(read on for an explanation)

Many weeks ago, I was invited to participate in a project that the beautiful Natasha Reilly-Moynihan (of Creative Nachos) had created.

She invited 11 first graders and 1 third grader to create art - to make a poem and a drawing that began with the words, "I am like..." and ended with an animal.

She sent these pieces to artists around the globe so that these artists could use the children's pieces as inspiration to bring a new piece of art to life. (Beautifully inspiring, no?!)

I was one of those artists.

I invited my daughter, a constant source of my inspiration and a first grader herself, to help me with my piece.  I wanted her to have another chance to create, a chance to connect with another little girl who was hundreds of miles away through their artistic voices.

I showed my daughter the piece, explained the project, then cut out a printout of the original art and adhered it to a new piece of watercolor paper.  I told my daughter that it might be nice if the giraffe had some friends and a place to play...and I let her have at it.  She drew all of the outlines of the figures, and then I went back and colored in and added some details.

I also invited my daughter to write a short story about the giraffe.

The process alone was so moving.

But when I saw what Natasha made live today on her site - the pieces of art that had been created by each child, the ways that other artists used the pieces to bring something new to life, the stories that accompanied them, the letters the artists wrote to each child....

I realized that this is one of the most powerful projects in which I have ever been honored to participate.

Here is the original piece we received, and what my daughter and I created from it:

The original story my daughter wrote:

A digitally altered copy I made that included the art and the story:

I cannot urge you strongly enough to visit Natasha's site (http://creativenachos.com/blog), to read more about the project, to have tissues nearby as you scroll through the art and the stories.

I am so deeply moved by all of this.

There is no way I can find to end this post, because I just want this project, these feelings, this way of acting and being in the world to keep going.

Dare to share your heART with the world.  Look --- look what happens.

Namaste.