Queen of Hearts

A volcano doodle around one of my prized felt heart buttons. I love this quote. I do not want a lava rock heart. Hearts that hard are only good for one thing: pumicing callouses off of hairy-toed feet. That is not where I want to go in life. No sir.

If you are prone to explode a lot, think about what Neal A. Maxwell had to say about it. "Calmness conserves energy as well as relationships."

To love is also good,

for love is difficult.

For one human being to love another

is perhaps the most difficult task of all,

the epitome,

the ultimate test.

It is that striving for which

all other striving is

merely preparation.

-Ranier Maria Rilke (1875-1926), German poet, Illustration by Mary Engelbreit

Must keep making difficult stitches to avoid pumice heart. Thimble, please!

I ripped this out of my mom's Victoria magazine back in the day. A house around the corner from me (in American Fork) had a heart cut out of its wooden fence's arched door. I looked at it every time I drove by, which was roughly 87,346,089 times. I always loved that house; it had the fullest hanging baskets and the city's best curb appeal. Imagine my delight when I finally became friends with the people in that house. Their fence heart broke (which broke my heart), but I still heart them. I miss you, Poppengers!

Give it up to Anthropologie for the cutest postcard mailer. I won't drive to City Creek to get 20% off a museum-worthy, over-the-top kitchen towel no one in my house would be allowed to wipe their hands on, but for now I'll tack the coupon to my bulletin board because it's fetching to look at. SHARE THE LOVE reminds me of my FAVORITE word in the scriptures. (My favorite word? Can I mean that? Can a logophile like me even pin down one favorite word?! Yes.) It is "lovingkindness." Not a typo, just the best compound word on the planet. It's used a bunch, mostly in Psalms. It's the blue ribbon winner as far as words go because love is an action word and the action it needs is kindness. Lovingignore, lovinggossip, lovingjudge, and lovingfake are not real words for good reason: that ain't love. "Lovingkindness" reminds me of the phrase KINDNESS WITHOUT LOVE IS JUST PATRONAGE. I'll still take patronage over someone being flat out nasty to me, but nothing beats the combo of kindness and love (except peanut butter and chocolate).