Focusing on Life: Week 5: Capture a Heart!

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Sally Russick of The Studio Sublime is hosting a year long challenge which is... sublime... as you'd expect with such a studio name. The challenge is named 'Focusing on Life' and every week Sally is sending a prompt on what should we focus the following week.

It is a great introspection moment - days when you ask yourself 'and how am I going to do that?!', but that's the whole beauty: you take the time to do it, to find the resources and to find your inner self (the one most of us let it dormant, because, let's face it, it's much easier that way!)

With Valentine's day just around the corner this week's prompt is not unexpectedly dealing with, yes, you've guessed it, the heart. With a twist, since Sally wouldn't let us off the hook easily:

This week pay attention to your surroundings, 

think outside the box and 

capture a heart!

Well, well... I can make hearts (I just made one recently) - but this is not about making, it's about 'capturing' one! How do you capture a heart? I know how you get your heart captured: with a smile, or a hug, or a nice, candid word. I started to worry this will be the week when I fail and that woke me up in a moment. We are suppose to grow, to 'bloom' - how can you fail at that? You can't - unless you don't even give it a try... oh... there is a first step - let's try :)

While having this lovely conversation with myself (I swear, if I could write down a tad more lyrically what's going on through my head I will be able to pen down volumes of decent literature!) I kept admiring my 2 orchids in full bloom. Yes, there is 'bloom', but there is no heart in the orchid's shape - although... hmm... there is tons of heart in taking care of them and nurturing! However, you've already seen my orchids - and although I think they are full of love (never before about a year ago had my orchids bloomed after the store bloom: in the past year or so they bloom: all of them at the same time, interestingly enough), I'll skip orchids this time. Or all the other flowers on my desk.

Just beyond the orchids I have one of those climbing plants and there was my first heart, a little bit green:

The green heart :)

Once you find the first heart - you're bound to find more. I recently received this huge plastic beads from my SIL, they look like amber and although I have no clue what to make with them, I liked their look too much to pass them. I dropped them on the table and after a couple of days, when I picked up a magazine that was sitting on top of them - what do I find?!

I admit I re-shaped them into a symmetrical heart, but the original one was definitely a heart! In Paradise :) dreaming of Vacation :) Yes - my background paper is telling me something too!

I thought that's all - but then I realized I had a heart to show you all the time - and I forgot about it:

William's very special heart (made Christmas 2006)

This is a very special heart. It is 6 or 7 years old (I think 6) - and it was made by William as his gift to us (at Christmas) back in kindergarten. It is a glass heart painted by his 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 yo hands. And it is the heart we always have to put last and on the highest branch, so it can see us all (yes, the heart should see us!).
A year later, when he started to play piano he came with an explanation on how the heart 'works':

When I play [piano] you must look at the heart and my song is a key that opens the heart and fills us all with love for Christ, his Mommy, and God!

And that's how you capture a heart. I've been looking all the wrong places - where I should have started with my family and my faith. I came back full circle to them, though, didn't I?

Thank you for your wonderful visit - please make sure you stop by the rest of the play-group today, we all gather at Miss Sally's house!