Beauty Beneath the Surface

  I came across this picture of my daughter's high school play. These kids had many challenges getting this production off the ground. Yet I know the experience drew them together. Now, if your looking at picture for perfection, it is not particularly a great picture. The composition, lighting, and arrangement of color are all a little off---but its beauty is what it represents. Its a memory, a moment in time for the people in the picture. The beauty is not on the surface, but beneath it.

What the card makers do for Operation Write Home (www.operationwritehome.org) goes way beyond providing their beautiful hand made cards to the organization. Beneath every card mailed to deployed service men and women is someone who cares enough to support them and encourage them to write home. In turn, the soldiers are reaching out and sending a loving thought to someone they care about and love. This circle is completed when a friend or family member open the card and have this tangible moment of being loved. The "Any Hero" cards do the same from the children who make them, to OWH and are placed in the hands of a soldier. The shared love completes the circle.

Other acts of beauty are they unselfish ways our bloggers share some great ideas on  OWH through the blog site link. Terrific designers who have their own blogs to help you get started. Sandy has a TV program on line now and you can up grade your skill-level by just tuning in to the TV show on OWH.  Beneath the surface of this organization doing good, is this selfless effort of love and caring.They are giving themselves, as are many hundreds of card makers all over the states who want to share and encourage our deployed troops.

Directly, beneath the surface is the real, true beauty;
the beauty of sharing time with one another, getting to talk and know others across the country with this same interest and sharing a way to communicate our love for them and our art. Just this week, I was reconnected to one of my own high school friends who knew we were making cards for OWH. We live hundreds of miles apart. Many years had passed between the days we were in high school plays together. As we reconnected I found out she made her own cards, and asked to send them for mailing. What a beautiful gift!  A moment for us to remember those days and make some new days of our own.  Like my daughter's high school play picture, we are friends connected to one another though this experience in our lives and the moment will be remembered!

What thoughts do you have about beauty? or Card making, or friendship? Or looking at our link with OWH? Share them with us.