I had a photo in my hand of the damage. I had proof.Months had passed since we'd last spoke- the intensity of our relationship evaporated in a matter of weeks until there were just memories. After all these months, I rarely thought about her. But now, having an actual photo of the damage - in my hand no less - a righteous rant began in my head and I felt CERTAIN it was time for me to do SOMETHING. I had proof after all. I called one of the Lovelies....no answer. Even better, I thought, I'll call the Lovely who is a lawyer. She'll analyze this wrong doing and give me the words for the best text message I could fire off to avenge this.Lovely lawyer answered her phone and I started right up with my rant, even reviewing some of the old parts of the story just to get myself on a proper roll. I'm pretty sure I was pacing in the kitchen and more than likely waving my hands while I talked. Because I had proof! I offered to text the photo documentation to the Lovely just so she could see for herself THE DAMAGE. Finally I paused the tirade, "So what do I do NOW?""Well, that is just really shitty," she said. I'm certain I had an animated nod as I listened. She continued, "It really sucks that you can't replace it." And then she paused. For more than a few seconds. So I grabbed a pencil to jot down notes because she must be composing some sort of legal brief her mind. She took a deep breath and began again, "You know, one of the things I've learned, Shannon, is you can't go wrong with kindness. It never hurts to be kind."Kindness? You must be kidding me! I had proof!I'd already pulled a envelope from recycling to take notes on the back, so with pencil in hand I wrote "Note to self: Be kind" and set it on my computer keyboard so I'd see it in the morning. I went to bed having sent no reply, certain I would wake up with just the zinger of a message to send.Blurry eyed the next morning, my chicken scratched note looked for a moment like "be kind to yourself", which I tried to dismiss because I had revenge on my mind to plot over a cup of coffee. But my mind played with these words instead of revenge. As I thought about what being kind to myself might look like, I became nostalgic and weepy realizing the anger, the rant, the revenge seeking was just a cover for sadness, missing, longing. Note to self: be kind, was just right.Since I'm making signs these days, I painted myself a note (which is not my best piece of artbut a huge part of this journey) and hung it up. As I created the casual version of the love note pad, I knew a note to self would be a part of the stack. The customized note to self love notes are some of my favorite gems on the blog and instgram.

story behind the heART: note to self