In our shop we have a small table and two chairs near the front. When our most important patrons come to visit - your beautiful kids - they can sit there and enjoy their cookies. But the special part of the table is the top. It is a chalkboard.
We love to see what the kids do with that chalkboard. Have you ever noticed that every kid is an artist? Up to a certain age, if you give a kid a chalkboard and chalk and ask, "Draw me something?" They jump at the chance. They will draw you such wonderful pictures from deep in their imagination.
But if you give the same tools to an adult and ask, "Draw me something?" They will too often answer with "Oh, I can't draw." Why is that? Why do we tell ourselves we can't draw? Why do we listen when the world tells us we can't draw? Of course you can draw! Of course you can express yourself in a way that is wonderfully and uniquely your gift to the world!
Perhaps your tools are not chalk and chalkboard. Perhaps you work with music, or language, or even best of all, you express yourself through relationships with other people. What ever means you have of adding to the dance of this world, do it with all the deep magic you have within you!
I was reminded of this last week when we were getting ready to open the shop. One of our cookie artists noticed the kids' chalkboard table top. The day before, one of our little patrons had left us a wonderful message. We took a picture and posted it on our Facebook page right away. But the image lingered in my mind all weekend. We had done our job. We had used our means of expressing beauty through cookies. And one of those cookies had inspired a little one to tell us, and now you, how that cookie made them feel.
We don't just make cookies. We make memories sweeter. We add a bit of our artistry and care to your ideas and make them sweet tangible expressions of your memory. But what we do is just one way of expressing artistry. I challenge you to find a way this week to make memories sweeter through your own artistry.