(Hey Everybody! We’ve got a special guest blogger today! Here’s a special thank you to Elizabeth Dahl for taking the time to write this great post and share her wonderful idea for how to deal with the blues and woes of life!)
Have you ever gotten down or sad about something?
What am I saying?! Of course you have!
I’m no different! I get down about things all the time. And, sometimes, I let these woes and worries rule my life and ruin my joy.
This summer I faced my share of unhappy and distressing moments. Even though, I had a great summer working for my school and hanging out with my best friend, these sad moments cast a shadow over my excitement all summer long.
So, I started making stars.
At first, they expressed the things that made me sad. Voicing my fears and putting them on paper, I shared all the things I wasn’t willing to speak out loud for fear of seeming stupid, crazy, or weird. The stars provided a way of giving the thoughts in my head somewhere else to go, so that I wouldn’t dwell on them the entire day and let them ruin it.
It was simple stuff that I was writing on the stars—nothing major. Just small phrases like “Such-and-such made me sad” or “Somebody ignored me” or even things like “I dropped the last piece of my sweet-and-sour chicken.” That was all I wrote. Then, I would feel a smidgen better about whatever was going on.
Gradually, though, these simple stars started taking on more meaning.
I crafted the stars from a pretty, sky blue paper. I had picked it cause blue is usually associated with sadness and water (like tears). I cut up strips of paper and counted them. I kinda wanted a way of knowing how many stars I had made without having to take them out and individually count them—cause counting stars didn’t always turn out so well… I would drop the tiny things and have to stop the count to search (I always recovered them in the end.).
So, I came up with a system. For every 10 blue stars I made, I would take a pink sheet of paper and write down an inspirational quote that kinda had something to do with all the stars I was making.
Then, I decided with every 100th blue star and 10th pink star I would take a yellow sheet of paper and write a blessing that came out of all those blue stars!
Quickly my jar of stars started to fill up. Blue stars being the majority with a slight variance of color with the occasional pink star and rare yellow ones. My little jar of stars was unique and beautiful and something that caught the eyes of the people who visited me (usually I didn’t inform them of the stars’ true meaning.)
Though the sadness and disappointments didn’t stop coming throughout the summer, that little act of folding up the paper and hiding the words that I had written helped me put the thoughts down, then out of sight. And the pinching off of the five corners of the star gave it a finality of moving on.
This isn’t to say that some of the sad thoughts never came back. I probably have dozens of stars that say practically the same thing, but every time those thoughts came back, I was able to cast them away just as quickly!
Now, the stars alone didn’t help me find joy when so many shadows were being cast on me. I went to God with many of my woes and worries as well. With each star, I kinda said a little prayer as I folded them up and dropped them down into their jar. With his help, I have been able to get over many of the things that have brought me down this summer.
So, now, I keep a small bag with little strips of paper with me for the things that upset me when I’m on the go. My first little jar of stars is well over halfway full now. And, I am still making it through life with a joy that is no longer brought down by the petty things that used to hold so much weight. I am even starting to prepare the paper of a little jar of blessings to rival my jar of stars!
Some days I make more little stars than others, but that is ok. Having them gives me a way to put the poisonous thoughts, which would otherwise completely derail me, away.
This is just a thought for all of you who have sorrows that just won’t stop.
Start writing them down and casting them off.
Make your own little jar of stars!
PS
My best friend,who is not so crafty, also mentioned the therapeutic side of burning the little stars as a way to get rid of the blues (he’s kind of a pyro).
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBXN0MRRVFE]
Very nice post with some great thoughts. Thanks, Elizabeth.
That was very nice Elizabeth. What a great idea.