A couple of weeks ago at Evening Prayer we talked about the little moments. The little moments of kindness, of opening a door, offering a smile, saying hello, picking up a piece of trash and disposing of it, giving a hug, carrying a sack of groceries for someone, calling a friend–all of these little moments add up to one good story. Sarah Thebarge compared the idea to pointillism–all those little moments create something beautiful.
So to bring the idea home with our folks there that night, we painted.
Pointillism.
My artist friend recommended we use q-tips. I love q-tips–so versatile and easy to find at the store. And I love my artist friend for suggesting them, because I had the paints and the canvas, but I hadn’t been able to find the right sort of brushes.
BINGO.
And so we painted. There were all kinds of wonderful variations on the ones that I showed as examples. (Hello, Pinterest, you are my friend.) Not one single person complained or threw their hands up in frustration. There was good conversation and laughter and I heard more than one person say how much fun it was.
Must have been the q-tips. They do make a party fun.
I had bought some paper shapes for the children to paint, if they wanted, or if they finished a canvas and wanted to continue creating. It was Cooter who came over and asked to paint, sitting in my lap. He is eight, and I know this won’t last much longer. Sure, buddy, pull up a q-tip.
I pulled out a paper cutout of a person. He went to town on it. Painting with many q-tips and all kinds of colors, I think he had finished three people by the time we left.
And since then? When I can’t find him during our school days or on the weekends, I can usually go to the back porch and find him painting away.
You see, he’s working on painting all of the characters from the Harry Potter books. I think he’s up to Book 4.
All the characters, y’all. Some obscure, some not so much. But for painting with a q-tip, I think he’s doing quite well. It’s been funny to me that he has yet to ask to use one of the brushes sitting back there, right there with the paints.
This is a child who doesn’t see himself as an artist or artistic at all. Yet this project has struck a chord with him. He enjoys it, and I love that it resets his brain–he comes away from painting with paint all over all the things *sigh*, his hands included, and with a smile on his face and a lift in his spirit.
I love that so much. Who would’ve thought it?
Best purchase ever. So much so, that yes, when I get back over to that store, we are picking up more of those.
After all, he has three more books to get through.
I’ve told him that I thought we would string them up across his wall or something to display them. He’s thinking about putting them in a book. We really haven’t decided, but whatever we do, I hope they always bring a smile to his face as much as they do now.
May we all find something that brings us so much joy. And may we do all the little things we can to live a good story and paint a lovely picture.
Love to all.
I Might Need A Nap 