Sometimes life throws curve-balls. They usually come unexpectedly and knock us off our feet. When life breaks us, it takes supporting embraces from those around us to help glue the pieces back together. One of the hardest challenges as a friend or family member is watching someone struggle. Sometimes there aren’t enough words or even more so, the right words to adequately express our sorrow for those we love. When the prayers have been dispatched and we wait for what the future will bring, we need our minds taken off our pain and to feel like nothing was amiss, even just for a few hours in the company of someone we adore.
Vincent Van Gogh said
'art is to console those,
who are broken by life’.
For this reason, I always have a special place set aside at every workshop for a person, who is going through hard times. I am so grateful to all those who have already shared their stories with me. Although it won’t fix the hurt, it may bring a moment of solace, to create something and forget for a while... to feel blissfully ignorant as our attention is temporarily diverted elsewhere. Hammering a nail into some wood can be so immensely gratifying... clobber that frustration into a nail and see how much lighter you feel! Observing a piece of art appear under a glistening wet paintbrush is immensely soothing. Feeling the soft bristles on your fingers is like a gentle touch from an angel. Doing something inspiring or creative with kind-hearted loved ones, can truly lift the soul.
If you have a person whom you cherish, who could use a little ray of sunshine to lessen their hurt, please let me know for future workshops. It would be my pleasure to gift the place set aside for this purpose to someone you love, who could use a little distraction. Allow me to help you sweeten the load for a special person who has been knocked over by what life can offer.
My family lives far away... in Africa and Europe. So far away, that I can’t physically embrace them whenever I’d love to. I know that there are random people in their orbits, who touch their lives when I can’t, and as such, it is always important to me, to reach out to someone locally as a silent thank you to those who help the ones I love and miss far away. God sends his angels, but we can’t usually see them... every now and again we need an angel in human form to touch our hearts, tightly embrace us with healing warmth and tell us the platitude that...
‘everything
is going to be okay’
... and maybe for a moment, we can actually believe it, live it and dream it and create some hope.
I’d love to hear from you.
Contact me here and tell me your story. Every workshop has always had, and will always have, one special spot set aside. Out of respect for the privacy of what you may be going through, this gift is usually kept private, unless you choose to want to share it.
Don't let anyone ever dull your sparkle.
Embrace. Create. Enjoy. Renew.
Warmly,
Claire
THREE & ME
