My Empty Glass Heart

Halfway through last year, I moved from my humble little studio attached to the house (which I had outgrown & now needed to accomodate a teenager!) to a fabulous new space which would better cater for every aspect of my art business.
The old space was a small but beautiful light filled room with doors to the verandah and walls speckled with paint from years of colourful art practice!
It was a place where my art dream was born and in which I shared many happy hours running my children’s classes and adult workshops. I appreciated this room so much!
The space somehow had turned into a melting pot of ideas and laughter and it had such a lovely intangible feel to it, part of me was sad to leave!
Whilst packing up the room… I discovered many a forgotten treasure one of which was a hollow glass heart. The heart had been in a box for years, I had intentions to do something creative with it…..but I never really found a place for it to hang.

The new studio offered copious amounts of room which at first felt a little empty, I was excited to get up and running again and share it with everyone that had been patiently waiting for me to restart classes. I thought about how I could capture the same feel and atmosphere that the old one had by somehow involving all the children in bringing the good vibes into the new space.
The idea was that each week the kids could write on a tiny piece of paper a positive word or two, fold the paper and stick it in the heart. This was purely a voluntary thing…the word just had to be something that made them feel grateful & happy that day; not necessarily to do with art but something in their lives. It was to be an anonymous snippet of gratitude to hold in the glass heart and somehow in my mind this would translate to the feeling in the room. I wasn’t really sure if they would be into the idea at first.....

Well to my surprise, each week, every one of those children without prompting would fill out their piece of paper and remind others to do it too. It became a routine of sorts, the taller ones, helping the smaller ones reach the hanging heart!
Within 6 months the heart was bursting with positivity and so was the room!!
The question at the end of the year of course was “what are you going to do with all the notes Helen?” “we’re running out of room”
I actually didn’t have a plan for all those little positive thoughts! I hadn’t even read any of them, part of me thought them to be too private. But I guess they were anonymous and they had to be moved out of the heart so we could start a new year.
Throw them away?…absolutley not!
Store them in another glass jar to free up the heart?…yes that will work!
I decided to open a few random notes….and they made my heart sing! I'll be forever grateful to be working alongside these children every week!

I especially like this one! lol
