Artsy

The day we went to the maple syrup festival, we passed an antique festival on the way from one camp to another, out in the middle of nowhere, that was in an old farmhouse. In the bathroom was a framed print of a poem called "'If' for Girls" by J.P. McEvoy. I debated about buying it and wish I would have, but didn't. (You can see the same print here. Very sweet.) The poem is available easily on the internet, though. Here it is after printing it out on watercolor paper and decorating a bit. And framed to give as a gift at a party the girls went to last weekend. I have plans to make a whole series of these (though each one decorated differently) to give away. The poem is at the end of this post if you would like to read it. While digging through supplies for embellishing the poem, I came across these pictures from going to see a movie ("How to Train Your Dragon") that I had already gathered with this paper, and got motivated to put it all together. That would be the first page I've completed in probably close to a year now.

I still go back and forth about scrapbooking and its place in my life, but my memory is getting sketchier all the time and there are definitely some stories that I'd like to tell, or leave for my kids. Here is the poem from above:

"If" for Girls

If you can hear the whispering about you And never yield to deal in whispers, too; If you can bravely smile when loved ones doubt you And never doubt, in turn, what loved ones do; If you can keep a sweet and gentle spirit In spite of fame or fortune, rank or place, And though you win your goal or only near it, Can win with poise or lose with equal grace;

If you can meet with Unbelief, believing, And hallow in your heart, a simple creed, If you can meet Deception, undeceiving, And learn to look to God for all you need; If you can be what girls should be to mothers: Chums in joy and comrades in distress, And be unto others as you'd have the others Be unto you - - no more, and yet no less;

If you can keep within your heart the power To say that firm, unconquerable "No," If you can brave a present shadowed hour Rather than yield to build a future woe; If you can love, yet not let loving master, But keep yourself within your own self's clasp, And not let Dreaming lead you to disaster Nor Pity's fascination loose your grasp;

If you can lock your heart on confidences Nor ever needlessly in turn confide; If you can put behind you all pretenses Of mock humility or foolish pride; If you can keep the simple, homely virtue Of walking right with God - - then have no fear That anything in all the world can hurt you - - And - - which is more - - you'll be a Woman, dear.

From the writings of J. P. McEvoy