I recently started working at a store which sells all sorts of good supplies for creating stuff – mixed media pieces, planner decorating, scrapbook pages, cards, and a myriad of other things. I am surrounded by creativity 12-15 hours a week.

I also follow people on Instagram, read blogs, and see Facebook posts containing massive amounts of creativity. I love seeing all the creativity. And I love to create things.

Last night, my coworker asked me what my style was and what kind of things do I make.

I realized that I pretty much make nothing. No. Thing. Ever.

I have sewn. I sometimes dabble in doodling and hand lettering. I photograph. I’ve learned mixed media techniques. I’ve scrapbooked. I’ve journaled a few pages in a Bible. I’ve stamped. I’ve attempted watercolor. There’s probably more, though they escape me now.

But right now? Not a darned thing. I create nothing. I have no style to describe what I don’t do.

Whoa.

I even scrolled through a ton of photos on two phones to see if perhaps I had created something which I forgot.

Nope.

So apparently my style right now is blankness.

And sadness.

I need to start making things.

Something.

Anything

Daily.

But God help us, born to this canvas and paint, if we do nothing with it, sign our name on its empty off-white surface and hang it on the wall, after a long succession of lookalike days leads us to our graves, content merely not to have made a mess of the canvas. Who will gaze on that unmarked rectangle on the wall, next to the million others, all of them differentiated only by the names scribbled in the corners, and do anything but sigh? Perfectly safe. Tragically wasted.

~from David DuChemin’s post Fill Your Canvas

I was so excited to be a part of the book launch team for my friend Dawn Camp and her new book, The Gift of Friendship.

The Gift of Friendship is a collection of stories highlighting the beauty of those valuable relationships with those we call friend. Just as each of us is unique, with various backgrounds, life circumstances, and needs, each of the brief stories is unique and tailored by God. You’ll find stories about community, hospitality, vulnerability, and so many more.

I am so blessed to have some wonderful friendships with a lot of overlapping circles amongst them. Even sweeter is that two of my best friends are also family – my mom and my sister. We are all in different seasons of life and there’ve been times when I got together with my friends regularly and often. But right now it seems that we’re in a phase where everyone is heading in myriad directions and it has become too easy to let those relationships slip to the back burner. I think about them and think about planning something, but then I get busy, or else I know that they’re busy, so I don’t.

But reading The Gift of Friendship has reminded me of the value of my friendships and that they are worth the investment. Since starting it, I’ve scheduled coffee/tea dates, a girls night out for Mexican food, hung out more with my mom and sister, and am planning a couple get-togethers with other friends – all things that I enjoy with people that I enjoy, but have allowed life’s busyness to crowd out.

I highly recommend The Gift of Friendship with its short, engaging stories from women of all walks of life. I believe you, too, will find sweet encouragement and reminders for your own friendships, whether current and active, not yet begun, or in need of a little TLC.

http://myhomesweethomeonline.net/book