COLORED PENCILS

It's been quite a while since I've written a blog (okay, it's only been 2 weeks but from what I've seen in the Blogging world two weeks seems to be a LONG TIME - haha). So I thought I would jump back into it with a little essay I wrote last night. My BFF introduced me to a WONDERFUL website called jessicasprague.com and Jessica has been holding a fabulous online class called "Stories In Hand." Debbie joined up and at her urging I did too and I am SO GLAD I DID!!! The class is all about capturing the stories of our lives -- the little ones as well as the big ones -- the ones inbetween all the pictures we take to scrapbook or blog. She does it by way of "memory sparks" and I've seen things similar to this before (you know, like the terrific memory jars with pieces of paper asking all kinds of questions about your life) but this goes deeper than anything I've ever seen and to me it seems designed to help you dig deeper into your memories and capture all kinds of things you may never think about otherwise. I love it I love it I love it!!!!!! I haven't put together my prompts and checklists binder yet (heck, all I've done is print everything out because I gave away many of my scrapbooking tools - hahahahaha! I thought I was "going digital" and would never need them again. Little did I know. :-) I hope you're enjoying them, Mom! :-) :-) ). I'll get it put together eventually. I'm notorious for not doing a project through to its completion.

So anyway, for better or for worse, here's my first little memory essay. I'll never be the kind of a writer our friend Amy Sorensen is (Amy is AMAZING!) or my BFF, Debbie is (she's also fabulous!) but I sure enjoy stuff like this, and I'm not tooooo bad ... :-}


COLORED PENCILS
Well, not too long ago it was Saturday again ... correction: it was Super Saturday again and I had offered to bring my box of colored pencils for one of our creative projects. Funny how I hadn't touched my colored pencils for several years yet I knew right where they were, stored away with my scrapbooking supplies. I don't know where many of my things reside these days but some things I never lose track of, even when I don't use them for a long time.

Okay, I was happy to share (within reason). On that Saturday I pulled the box out and as I did so I was surprised to find myself inexplicably drawn to that lovely box of brightly colored pencils. Almost longingly drawn. And for goodness' sake, they were just sticks of colored lead! Yet ... I LOVE colored pencils. Always have. For me, a colored pencil goes hand in hand with storytelling and artistic endeavor and coloring inside the lines. I wish I were the kind of wild, adventurous sort who colors with abandon outside the lines but nope, not me. I love the structure of following the rules and filling in the spaces as neatly as possible and creating beauty with color. But I love the tools most of all: the pencils, the crayons, those little oblong tins of water colors with your basic ten colors (and oooohhh if you're lucky, the double sized tins that have all the fun extended hues).

I have a vivid memory of spending grade school recess huddled with my best friend against a wall, creating stories with ... you guessed it, colored pencils. We drew all kinds of stories about little girls who did fun and slightly dangerous things, and who had to be saved by the knight in shining armor (whoever THAT cute boy happened to be at the time). I can still feel the warm wall at my back and the secret fun of sharing what we were writing. Of course it was secret ... we couldn't let anyone read our stories ... horror! At least ... not right then. Then was all about the creating and the giggling together and the colors. Some time later we graduated to something just as wonderful: colored PENS. All together now: ooooohhhh yyyeeaaahhh. Pink and purple and red and turquoise blue and GOLD of all things! Little small pens the size of my index finger that flowed color and made writing and drawing pictures so much fun! I loved those pens as much as I loved the pencils.

My attachment to colored pencils didn't end with grade school, though. As a Tweenie I spent many quiet Sunday afternoons sketching. I had a whole series of pictures of young women from all over the world, dressed in their native costumes. I would sketch them as meticulously and precisely as my young hands could master and then color the pictures with my pencils. I would sit quietly on the bed in the room I shared with my two sisters and take great pleasure in copying the pictures as closely as I could. That same pleasure followed me through high school and even into a few college art classes where I tried to master drawing, watercolor, charcoals. I was never the best of sketchers but you guess it ... I had a killer eye for color. Still do.

So where did this love for coloring tools come from? It's hard to say for sure. Part of it comes from my mom, I know. I remember sitting at the kitchen table as a really little girl, watching my mom do these gorgeous, vivid colorings of Bible stories using crayons. They were intricate and beautiful and I was in awe. I thought my mom was a true artist and I wanted to do something just as detailed someday. I also wanted to help color the pictures but Mom would never let me get my tiny hands on them (I wonder why, ha ha). But my mom's influence is only part of it ... I still find myself inexplicably drawn to every box of colored pencils I see. Perhaps it's the creative potential, perhaps it's the sense of creating something lovely, perhaps it's just the colors themselves! And perhaps I had a peculiar love for the colors that populated the Spirit World, and I brought that attraction with me to my mortal life. That's a particularly nice thought -- I think I'll stick to that one.

Whatever the reasons, I'm glad for this little personality peculiarity. HEY, does anyone have a box of colored pencils I could borrow?