Two Years Ago.....

Two years ago I wrote this guest blog post on the Lil Blue Boo blog.  It was one of my first blog posts, and it was about how beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  More importantly, it was about recognizing our failures or shortcomings and taking them as stepping stones to paths of greatness.  One of the last lines reads: "...let’s take a moment and give a standing ovation to our failed projects. Without them, how could we appreciate all the beauty we otherwise create?"

Now, two years later, I had no idea how true that would ring.  Ashley is now battling cancer, and can't do the things she typically could in the time frames she is used to.  She needs more rest, something she is not that used to doing.  She's got a new scar and tiny skeleton hands (see her blog posts here ) and you know what?  She's as beautiful as ever.  

I think that while many people have always loved her, without even knowing her, now even MORE people love her.  They can see through her recent struggles, the greatness that lies within her.  She's not just a crafting guide to so many, she is a wife, a mother, a friend, a sister, a daughter.....  And now she has chosen to share her recent 'shortcomings' with the world in order for others to learn and grow from their own struggles.  If she helps just one person, she's helped give them the standing ovation that they need to get through a hard time.  It's more than most people can give in a lifetime.

Today, oddly enough, a local magazine is having a photo shoot at my house.   They are shooting "Art and objects in a home that inspire."  You know what I suggested to them for one of my objects?  The same bricks that I wrote about in that blog post two years ago this week.  

Funny how things come full circle.  Old houses are demolished, but we maintain a piece of it with us for the rest of our lives.  Ashley's body was practically trampled in surgery, but she maintains her high spirits.  Our failed projects, our losses, and our disadvantages, do not equal defeat.  They equal a path to greatness.  


xo,
Shari