Xmas Card 2010

All year long I've known that I wanted my new xmas card for 2010 to feature mistletoe and the message that the receiver is loved. I had planned for "You are Loved" to be a ribbon of calligraphic letters intertwined within the leaves and forming a bow at the top.


While sketching, I realized I'd wanted a more simple message with less letterforms.

So I did some thinking.

I've an early memory of looking up at the mistletoe in our foyer, yearning for a special someone to come kiss me. I had no idea who that person would be. And the aching for it left me sad and needy.


Wanting to be loved is a beautiful thing. But you can't want something you can't create for yourself or already are in the first place. We look to other things and people to fill that gap. But the truth is that we already are the love we are looking for. And to see it, all you have to do is know that and echo that knowledge by giving it right back to yourself. Then this cool thing called giving what you have to others is possible. Because you can't love unless you have it to give first.

So the message changed from "You are Loved" to "Be Loved." But the word "Loved" sounded a little too needy. So it's shortened as you see it here to "Be Love."


I'm at the top of that mistletoe now - giving loving cue.

This is the first xmas I've committed to only doing what I want, not what is expected of me.

Merry Christmas!