Wednesday, December 19, 2012

A snowflake solstice


I have 2 children, both are adults now and I'm thankful every day they've grown up to be fine humans.  I remember every age; the trials and tribulations of rearing them and keeping up with their ever-changing personalities and physical needs.   I loved all of those moments.  I still love those moments; they are my babies no matter how old they are.

I love the kindness of children, their innocence, their unfettered joy of being.  I feared for their safety, their well-being.  I mourned the loss of innocence when my husband and I discussed how we'd teach them to protect themselves as they learned that in addition to very nice people the opposite existed as well.  Mean people, hurtful people, evil people. My kids have been lucky - most of the people that have been in their lives have not been of the latter ilk. I do not fool myself that I can keep them safe from all things. I wish I could.

This week has been exceptionally hard for me.  The Sandy Hook children and their family and friends have been in my thoughts all week long.  It makes me profoundly sad that they and their parents/families will not have them to teach them, to learn from them, to love them.

As I thought about my snowflake design I couldn't stop thinking about all of the children. Each one the light of a family. That no two snowflakes are alike, they swirl around for a very short time and melt away.

In remembrance I created this design. The background is storm clouds. The snowflakes are the fleeting moments we hold; perfectly individual. The candles the children that shine light for us. The light we light to remember them by.  The groupings is all of us, together we are humanity, together we must be the light for others.  The title is A Snowflake Solstice as we move from innocence to a new year where we can hopefully learn the hard lesson that we must do everything we can to keep our children safe and have conversations on how we can do that.


Hold your children and kiss them. Be brave enough to say all lights should be considered sacred and worthy of shining forth. Be the light and do what you can to keep them as safe as you can. 



8 comments:

  1. Beautiful Vo, truly beautiful. -Tara

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  2. I really love this design, and when I saw it on Spoonflower today it instantly reminded me of all those poor children.

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  3. Tara and Amy, Thank you for commenting. I'm so heartsick and sad over it and this was one of the ways I could put my feelings out there about it. I want the design to be seen as simple candles lighting up a room and as each one of us. Because we are the children of yesterday and this week (I think) is truly a loss of innocence for all of us.

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  4. wow. a wonderful tribute to those tragically lost souls. xxx

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  5. You made me cry some more. I have not been able to move on yet from this horrific tragedy. This is a beautiful tribute to them V. Thank you.

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  6. I'm wish there were something more I could do. It's maddening that I can't actually do more than be vocal about how we must take care of our kidlets.

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  7. Vo, I also can`t stop crying when I see these beautiful innocent little faces looking out at us. Your design is a lovely tribute to them and your writings are really poignant and so well said. Thanks

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