One Year Later

Wow! The power of the internet. Who knew that people would still be reading about us a year later? And helping us to reconnect with lost friends - Hi Jessie! And hopefully inspiring many of you to blog less and create more. It's wonderful that we still have people we know that mention they "found" us on the Learning to Love You More website. It's amazing that for some of them it took so long. These are people we interacted with on a regular basis all through the process. People who heard about what we were doing. People who were invited to both the premier and to Bumbershoot. And they're just now getting around to seeing our work. It only serves to reinforce my perception of how quickly time passes, how lives today are FAR too busy, and how wrapped up we all are in ourselves that not only do we not have time to stop and smell the roses, we can't stop and smell the roses of a friend either.

Well here we are a year later and the creations still keep coming. All the Olivers seem to have an enhanced confidence on both our ability to create and the value of those creations. Since Bumbershoot Michael has created some beautiful things from wood, Sydney has drawn some of the most intricate portraits, I am trying my hand at quilting, Mary has made millions of masterpieces, and the boys (who don't show us their art but I'm pretty sure some takes place) are making the world a more beautiful place one tree at a time.

One of the most interesting, lingering effects of our experience is the appreciation it has given us for art and aesthetics. After Bumbershoot, we hung some of our work on the walls of our apartment and have been enjoying them, but more recently we received a large piece of art from Michael's brother James who is an artist in his own right. Our artist neighbor, Steve, who some of you may remember was featured in one of our LTLYM assignments, is moving away and is divesting himself of seemingly hundreds of canvases. He leaves them everywhere for people to enjoy and acquire. We've "rescued" several dozen for ourselves and have them hanging everywhere. Having "been there and done that" we perhaps appreciate how much of himself there is in each one. Somehow the dumpster or a street corner don't seem the appropriate resting place for anyone's creations.

So. Quit reading this now and go make something already!