Journal prompt: Hearts

Wishing everyone a Happy Valentines Day

Journal prompt today was simple "hearts" and of course that is totally appropriate!  I wanted to try a new tangle just out called "Natti" and that is the tangle around the inside of the heart. I think you can see it better if you click on the image.  

The paper was lightly brayered with red acrylic paint and the circle printed paper is Gelli print paper with a heart cut out.  

The photo of the little painting at the top was on Facebook awhile ago and I fell in love with it.  Wish I could read the painter's name and give him/her credit.  The two little gals under the table are JUST the right spirit of fun.  

I remember so many Valentine's days when I was teaching 4, 5 and 6 years olds.  They got SO excited about that day.  No presents involved…just the exchange of little cards with silly sayings. 

 The joy of making the Valentine box containers…they loved the anticipation.  I'd have some mother's join me that morning to help read the cards as most of my kids were still non-readers.  The excitement was electric and kids would run across the room to hug the giver of the valentine!  Spontaneous appreciation!  Usually valentine cookies or cupcakes and milk would follow.  You'd think they were at the king's banquet!  

It's hard to replicate that mood and feeling as you get older and more jaded I guess.  Everyone should get to visit a kindergarten room at Valentine's Day so you can see what real genuine happiness looks like.  

A holiday revolving around love is really something special.  Sort of like Thanksgiving which revolves around gratefulness and harvest bounty.  Perhaps we need more of these kinds of celebrations.  

Listening to the democratic debate last night the words "it's so complicated" came up so many times in reference to economic disparity, world chaos, and problem solving locally, nationally and internationally.  By the end of which you begin to wonder how we will ever find any solutions.  And you begin to wonder why anyone would take on the presidency.  

Really it's overwhelming to most of us.  I read in one column recently that part of the reason people feel so angry is that they have lost their "narrative".  An interesting way to look at it.  Meaning we grow up with the "story" of how we can be what we want to be in this world and that problems can be solved and that we will do better than our parents did (although that definition is shaky) and that life will improve if we work hard.  

It's not happening for so many people.  They feel cheated.  

As both Senator Sanders and Secretary Clinton pointed out…"it's complicated".  No easy solutions.  People want easy solutions, easy fixes, someone who will say "I can fix it for you".  Rather than live with the uneasy questions.  But "living with the questions" is what we will have to do.  There are no easy fix it answers.  So this takes bravery and intelligence and faith to re-write the narrative so that it fits with current life BUT still gives us hope for a better tomorrow.