Sigh....Valentine's Day. It's one of the holidays where most people seem to be in full-tilt or completely against it. In either case, most people still just somehow acknowledge the day and allow others to feel however it is that they feel.
Personally, I'm on the fence. Yeah, I think that it's a commercialized money making holiday and a day that can make you feel like a POS if you don't have someone doting on you, but it is a reminder to slow down and think of others. I don't think it has to be all about romantic love. I can just be a reason to reach out and be sweet. I don't have any expectations and as always, I love giving more than receiving but this Valentine's Day was one to keep in my heart always.
I got up and made G a cup of tea and left some cranberry-orange bread and a chocolate-covered strawberry on the table. Beside that was a new friend, now named Harriet. She's a stuffed owl with dangly striped legs that is exceptionally good at sitting at the edge of a table or on the sill of a window.
Once we got ready, we started our girly, heart day adventure. Stop one was a glass making studio where we have blown our own Christmas ornaments before and found some wonderful gifts. It is always a treat to wander and see the newest pieces but today G got to choose a necklace. It is a simple chain with silver dragonfly pendant. It has green glass heart-shaped wings.
Since we got going a bit later than we wanted to, it was already lunch time when we were done there so we decided to have lunch at our favorite Thai place before our next destination. From our window seat, we got to look at the art on the building across the street and enjoy the bright daylight even though it was bitter cold on the other side of the glass.
The other day I was trying to think of something fun to do inside that both of us would enjoy. I don't know what made me think to bring her to the museum but it was hands down one of the best things ever. I don't profess to know or understand all art but I do appreciate it. Knowing that she had never been formally introduced to art, I wanted her to just take it in. No preconceived idea and none of my opinions.
We wandered through with her just commenting at first and then starting to question.
"what is that supposed to be?" to which I answered, "what do you see?"
That went on for a bit as she started not just seeing the raw materials but a 10,000 foot view, being able to find what she wanted to see. At one point, at a piece I personally wasn't moved by, I asked her what she saw and she said, " Nothing". Another installation of various neutral piece had her saying, " Is this just a bunch of white things?" It had me laughing because so many adults WANT to say that but won't.
Another is a room with large gray glass panels that look like huge flat screen T.V.s. The first time I saw it, I didn't get it but now I like it. I explained to her that not one other person will ever see the same thing ever again. It's reflective so you pick up who or whatever else is in the room. It's a room of flat, sterile glass but it has life because of what is going on around it.Something about that contrast draws me in. I could sit there for hours.
Then we got to the metal sculptures. I see personalities in each one. Plus the room they are in.....wow. The light and windows, brick and flooring.......heaven.
She started looking at them at angles different than someone two feet taller.
We found faces.
And sea life
and bouquets of flowers.
She loved the broken glass. So blue-green and angular.
Then this......one of my very faves. So daunting and powerful but soft and curvaceous. She was afraid if she walked around it, it may tip over but once she made her first trip, she kept looping it looking at the details and falling in love the way I did one day, and continue to even now.
Lastly, the rock she said was bigger than any rock she had ever seen. That's a bunch of hooey since we go hiking on rocks much larger, but inside, encased in the wall with a bench where we sat staring for quite some time, picking out all of the formations we saw just as one would looking at the clouds, I understood the magnitude of it.
There wasn't one moment where she asked to leave or said she was bored. Instead, she asked when we could visit again and that made my heart so very happy.