not small

I don’t know about you, but for me as a creative person, it can be easy to get frustrated sometimes. To feel like I haven’t really contributed in some huge meaningful way: painted the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel, written the Great American Novel, whatever. The voice in my head says – Really, you write some words here and there, direct some small scenes, do a little design work.

And then I run across a picture:

This was taken last June, poolside at the YMCA. These precious friends are watching a baptism. And last year, when I looked at this picture, the excitement on their faces is what I focused on. This year, running across it in a different context, I saw something else. It may seem silly, but I realized what they were wearing.

That brown t-shirt there, behind Whitney’s camera? That’s from Fellowship North‘s 21st anniversary. I remember because I put 21 dots across the bottom of the design. Next to her, her husband Peter is wearing one from a ski trip a couple of years ago. The orange in the upper left is another anniversary, the brown beneath Alison’s dreads still another. And of course, all around are the red shirts that we made specifically for the celebration of last summer, our 25th year.

All of those I had some hand in making. And when I see this picture, it becomes very hard to think of making a t-shirt as a small thing. Somehow not enough in the world of my artistic expectations. Because there it is, art all around me – right there on people that I love. What could be more beautiful?

So if you are out there today, trying to be an artist – heck, if you are anyone trying to be a help in this world – I want to encourage you. Keep on, because the world needs your beauty, and nothing that you give is too small.