shine bright
sugarlump.
When my daughter Elliot was born 19 years ago, she helped me remember the magic of little girl-ness–glitter, stickers, rainbows and coloring contests. My happy memories were scarred, however, with a deep sadness that still lingers in my heart. Being the target of a “mean girl” at age nine took away all my friends and made me the target of hurtful comments and actions. It made me want to quit everything–especially school, and it seemed to go on forever.
Somehow, with all that darkness, I eventually managed to find a little light inside. I created an imaginary world by drawing characters of my classmates doing what they liked to do. I shared my creations by passing out notes that brought smiles matching my character’s. Little by little I was engrossed by the ripple effect that creating kindness brings.
Designing my own world took my sadness and isolation away. I made friends with all different kids and created joy by delivering simple little notes. Pretty soon I realized that the most important thing was to love myself, be proud of what I was good at, and make others happy by sharing that joy in my heart.
Years later I realized that I had the light inside myself the whole time. But it got lost when I stopped loving myself, believing in myself and letting someone else dictate who I should be. We are all born with pure love inside–the love of God. What if we never lost sight of it? What if we celebrated the gifts we were born with and acknowledged each other’s differences as strengths. If we made each other happy with simple kindnesses.
Now, forty four years later, my simple message remains the same, but is more important than ever.
A little kindness is never really little.
Lent 2024
This year, at the beginning of Lent, I decided to do something instead of giving something up. I prayed for Divine Inspiration to write a Catholic children’s book and create a curriculum for families, schools and VBS programs. I was so intrigued that Ash Wednesday fell on Saint Valentine’s Day! Months ago, without realizing it, I had scheduled a sugarlump Valentine delivery and project with kids at Portland Tennis & Education.
The PT & E mission is to enable underserved youth through learning, life skills and tennis. I had fallen in love with their program after several visits. I was hired to redesign their lobby and entrance to make the kids feel proud of their space while allowing the Portland tennis community to understand what was happening on the courts when they weren’t playing. The facility was being used to provide a home-away-from-home for kids who had nowhere else to go after school and into the evening.
On one visit, a story hit me and has stuck with me ever since. Kids start going to PT&E in Kindergarten. They work hard at their schoolwork and at tennis for years while feeling proud of this community they belong to. The seniors were seated to play in the tournament finals with a team from a wealthy Portland High School. They were terrified. Not because of the tennis, but because they weren’t going to fit in. They didn’t have uniforms that matched. They didn’t have the right shoes or fancy equipment. And they didn’t want to play. My kids grew up in Lake Oswego and I could feel what these kids were feeling. Gratitude mixed with guilt filled my heart and I thought to myself, what would put all kids on an equal playing field? The Holy Spirit.
The previous year I gave a presentation to the Kindergarten class at St. Thomas More. I explained to them that the feeling in their hearts when they were kind was the feeling of the Holy Spirit. I asked them to decorate sugarlump cubes to share the kindness in their hearts with kids who needed extra love and encouragement. I was brought to tears when I saw their creations. The outpouring of compassion and empathy from these 5 year-olds was stronger than any rhetoric or contradictory world event on the news and light shone through the darkness. Changing the world is really that simple and it starts very small. The ripple effect, however, is enormous– enough for our kids to create a world they want to live in.
So I got down to business and used Lent as my “deadline.” I prayed every day to Jesus and His Saints and Angels and asked for Divine Inspiration. And it Just. Would. Not. Stop. All day long and in my dreams at night, the messages kept coming. I wrote “Shine Bright Sugarlump” for kids to understand the Holy Spirit and how it feels to connect with it. Then I got in touch with the Saints and Angels who came to my aid and wrote about them for the “On Earth as it is in Heaven” workbook. I created Sugarlump Blessing Badge Kits and Heavenly Heroes pocket cards. The writing and illustrations flowed into me like nothing I had ever experienced after 31 years of art direction. And after many revisions, copy editing, and testing colors and graphic files, I sent everything to the printer on Good Friday.
My biggest prayer is that we can get this message out to our kids and families. I designed something that makes it easy to sit quietly and pray while getting to know Jesus and His Saints and Angels. Who to pray to when you need help, and an internal knowing that no matter where you go, the Holy Spirit is always inside you. Feelings of love through kindness are little heart messages that connect us to God and each other.
I can’t wait to go back to St. Thomas More with the sugarlump friendship bracelets the kids at PT& E made them as a thank you.
Kindness always comes full circle.
