It’s Monday Morning in the Studio.

I Am – Watching and listening to the birds of creek, marsh, and nearby forest drop by for suet and seed on this cold Winter’s Day. A storm is coming our way tonight, a sou’easter. Glad to see our feathered friends are preparing for this tussle in nature.

I Look Ahead – To this next Tuesday, Valentine’s Day. I must take a bit of stock & inventory on our clean vases, tulip orders, pink and red raffia, special cards for enclosure messages. Telephone calls from young, old, and every age in between shall come our way. We’ll be ready to help.

I Recall – Decorating a shoe box with construction paper, tissue paper, and self adhesive, red foil heart stickers from “Hannah and Powell” Pharmacy. The purpose of the box – receipt and exchange of a small Valentine’s Day card with each child in my classroom at South Colby Elementary. Card distribution day, one of the few times we were all allowed out of our desks, at the same time. No running, pushing, or shoving. A big day for us youngsters. I also recall my mother and her red food coloring bottle, always able to mix the most festive color of pink for the top of a cupcake with the whirr of her hand-held, electric beater. Cupcakes, which were delivered to class, by Mom, so we had a party treat after the card exchange. In the forefront of my recollections today, however, is a story I read long ago in a magazine, about a little girl, whose assignment, along with her school chums, was decorating a shoe box for her receipt of Valentine’s cards in her class. The little girl never had a new pair of shoes, only seconds from her siblings, so a shoe box was not an option from her home. A classmate of this little girl learned of this, and took her home to her parent’s closet, where together, they procured and decorated together, two shoe boxes.

Here’s to sharing suet and seed, shoe boxes, love, kindness and help to other, each and every day.

-Kathleen