For all the reasons I talked about last week and much more, what creatives do everyday is very important. The plumbers and the paper pushers may have seemingly more practical services to offer the world. But the creatives are serving us on emotional and spiritual levels, which are just as important. Keep life in balance!
This site is, of course, all about creating literature for children. Specifically picture books.
At the end/beginning of each year, I tend to get all reflective about the past year, and all speculative about what's coming ahead in the new year ... on normal years. But this year wasn't quite normal, was it? And who knows what 2021 is going to bring.
In light of what many families are going through these days, and what they might have to face in the uncertain days ahead, sometimes I feel a twinge of guilt at sitting alone in my studio for hours everyday and having all this fun. Don't get me wrong, it is hard work! But it's the most satisfying and enjoyable work I've ever done. I am so blessed!
But if dad and mom are having problems getting food on the table, and all the kids' daily routines are up in the air, and they can't even go to school, they've got much weightier issues to worry about than what books are on their shelves! Sometimes in life people have to prioritize what's most important!
So, like many creatives, I get in these funks and wonder if what I do makes any difference to the world. So many people are stuggling with tough times, and I'm holed up in my room drawing and having fun all day!
I keep re-reading what I wrote last week, encouraging the story writers to keep it up, because sometimes we can see the importance of what others are doing and question our own value. And I had a little prayer meeting, because I always default to Him to get my head and my heart back on the right track.
And, yeah, it's important.
Mostly, of course, simply because that's what He's assigned me to do. That's reason enough!
But then I realize, too, how life changing and enlightening literacy is. When we read to children and teach them to love books, we are opening them up to life and their world. And unlocking unimaginable potential!
Who can tell if that baby you're holding and reading to will grow up and discover cures for deadly diseases or travel the galaxy or write beautiful music like we've never heard!
And it all begins with a book ... even the simplest of books ... because beginnings always start simply ...
So shake off the uncertainty, grab your tools and mount that pony ... 2021, here we come!