Mural | Thea Maia
by Astara
My brother’s dear friend from college, Thea Maia, is an artist living in Seattle. She painted a wonderful mural of Winnie the Pooh characters on a wall at her house. She has beautiful purple irises as flowers in her yard. Beth Kelley, her neighbor, shared this incredible story with Thea about how her mural and flowers took on new life inside the heart of a child. This story is about the wisdom of children, the gifts of art, the blessings of nature, the power of heart, and the joy in sharing. Thea shared it with Carlyle. Carlyle shared it with me. Now I pass it along to you.
The other night at the end of my pre-bedtime walk with Catie, we were walking past our neighbor’s house which has a mural of Winnie the Pooh and all his friends, a favorite of all my kids.
Catie walked over to it, and pointing at Pooh bear said, “I take you home!”
“Oh no,” I said, “You can’t take Pooh bear home, he is stuck to the wall.”
But Catie insisted, with two more of the characters, grabbing the air near them as if grabbing them off the wall, “I take you home.”
“Well,” I said doing some quick mommy thinking, “You can take them home in your heart?”
“What?” said Catie excitedly.
“Yeah,” I said, running with it. “You can take the memory of them with you, and carry it in your heart forever.”
Delighted, she ran back and did the same air hug grab with all the characters, “I take you home. I take you home. I take you home.”
Then, she started in on some of the beautiful irises the neighbors grow. “I take you home, I take you home.” After about half a dozen flowers, I finally pulled her away and got her back to our house.
As soon as she walked in the door, she saw her dad and said, “Here Daddy, I hold these for you in my heart!” and started making a motion of passing the flowers and Winnie the Pooh characters from her heart towards her dad. He was confused until I explained a bit, and then was quite touched that she’d shared her heart flowers with him.
I’m sure I’m not the first parent to come up with this metaphor for something as mundane as a mural or flowers, and I know it’s been used to carry a loved one with you. I’ve never heard of someone passing the heart memory on to someone else. I like it!! And so sweet that Catie wanted to share her heart flowers with her dad!!
– Beth Kelley
Let the wisdom of young Catie remind you that your heart already holds so many gifts, and it can hold so many more. May you share them with others.
