Just add water

Earlier today I posted a photo on Instagram of a journal page I was working on with watercolors. I felt like I spent way too much time painting in my journal, something I do for myself and not to sell in a gallery. Anyway, I was feeling guilty about it, like I had wasted away another day.

Later this afternoon, I was talking to my friend on the phone, and she was explaining that she wanted to DO things with her kids this summer. She didn't want her summer months to be endless trips to the park and sitting on a bench while her kids played and wore themselves out (although there is something to be said for this on certain days). She told me she wanted to be more creative with her kids, "like you," she said, and then talked about how she'd made homemade Play-dough with the kids today and was planning on using watercolors tomorrow ~ inspired by the image I'd posted earlier. She didn't know it, but I was crying after she said this. She validated the thing I had been beating myself up about all day, and she paid me the highest compliment anyone could ~ telling me the way I parent my son and live my life inspired her.

Half the time, I feel like I'm doing it all wrong and start to wonder if I truly have a purpose in the world. I question whether the things I do and say matter. Today they did. And it felt pretty good.