I used to be completely right brained, a lover of art and music, driven completely by my whims and emotions, then I became an educator. Because of the nature of my job, I had to kind of develop my left brain. Take a look at my desk at work and you will note my struggle.  If kids come into my office and it is neat, they kind of panic “Ms. Keller are you ok?”. They must have such faith in me, ha.  I often say that I have selective OCD. I adore printables, making lists and having a clear kitchen counter, but sometimes my desk is a bit out of control.

Both of my parents are artistic. Mom can freely draw anything, and loves to color (with Cole, he is her excuse ;)), and as a child, some of my most cherished belongings were things my dad made for me in his workshop. My parents encouraged the arts for me and my brother, piano, dance and band. I made a career for a bit of the arts, with the artistic expression of choreography and colorguard.  It is no surprise that Cole is a fun blend of me and his dad; he is so very expressive in the arts and in his speech (and in his facial expressions, thanks genetics) but also has his dad’s amazing brain for math and the ability to build anything.

I have been finally battling the germs that have been surrounding us for weeks the last few days, and made the decision to stay home yesterday with tummy issues 😳 and a mild fever so that I would not share with my sweet coworkers, and so that I wouldn’t catch anything else (see what I did there? Stay home when you are sick, please).  I have had a long chunk of time to look at Cole’s messy little box of crayons on our coffee table, and I decided to clean it out to borrow that box for his upcoming wild little boy nerf gun birthday party.

When we made this crayon box for him (is there anything an old coke box is not good for? They are such treasures) we cleaned out the broken crayons. We decided to melt them together and make these happy little rainbow crayons.  They still make me smile, because even now when Cole is drawing, he delights in their array of colors. It was amazing to Cole that they made something so beautiful out of pieces most would simply throw away.

In my daily life, I have the honor of talking to so many kids and grown ups who think of themselves as worthless and broken.  I am sure you have seen the Instagram and Pinterest post, stating that “Broken Crayons Still Color”.  My own life is proof of that.  I remind students on the daily that they are not what happened to them, their life has purpose, and even though they have struggled, they each have rare God given gifts that someone needs, that will dictate their own life path.  There is life after pain and a purpose for everyone.  Broken people are so worth a life, not worthless at all.  I have talked to God many times in my life, asking, I know that I am supposed to be learning something through this, but I would love to know what it is.  I rarely discover the direction I am going until much later on, it turns out God is pretty creative in his planning and provision as well. I sometimes imagine that his desk must look like mine.

I am off to disinfect and do a bit more work rearranging our art supplies. I hope your day is filled with finishing unfinished projects and staying healthy from all of these germs.

XO,

Leigh