Our youngest daughter Virginia Rose has quite the gift. She may be the smallest person in our home currently, but her love is mighty big, and her heart is ginormous.
“And although she be but little, she is fierce.”
– Shakespeare
Her mighty love is quite fierce, in all of the best ways.
If you show a sign of sadness, she will hold you tighter than expected and not let you go. If she witnesses you experiencing a disappointing circumstance, she’ll go out of her way to delight and surprise you, to lift your spirit. If you need a smile, she’ll share 20.
This fierce and mighty love is her superpower.
What’s your superpower? Do not underestimate how tiny it may seem, how meek or humble the gift might first appear. Your superpower is big because it’s the gift you were given to contribute to the world.
“Strawberry Fields” by Jason Kotecki. 12 x 12. Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD 🔴 Shop this art!
Where does strawberry milk come from? Pink cows, of course.
It’s a silly thing that some children believe; something grandparents tell grandchildren when pulling their leg.
I created this painting for an art fair we exhibited at in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, a land filled with dairy cows. I was pleased that so many people who saw it got the joke, reminiscing nostalgically about the “fact” that strawberry milk comes from pink cows.
Part of the humor comes from considering the silly logic of children, and the outlandish things they are prone to believe.
I, for one, used to believe I was Superman. I wore my Superman shirt under my school uniform in second grade to prove it.
The ridicule of my classmates inspired me to reconsider that belief.
But kids are not alone in their misguided understanding of the world. We grown-ups believe our fair share of ridiculous things, don’t we?
After all, some of us believe that you can’t eat breakfast for dinner and should never eat dessert first.
Some of us believe that Diet Coke is good for us.
Some of us believe it’s bad luck to bring bananas on a fishing boat.
Some of us believe that the first few years of parenting are the hardest.
Some of us believe that it’s possible to do and see everything on vacation, and we should ruin that vacation trying.
Some of us believe the news other people watch is propaganda while the news they watch is always true.
Some of us believe that we don’t need to prioritize spending time with loved ones, as long as the scraps of time we do spend is “quality” time.
Some of us believe that money is the best barometer of success.
Some of us believe that skin color says something about who we are as a person.
Some of us believe that good times will last forever.
Some of us believe that bad times will last forever.
Some of us believe that love is a feeling.
Some of us believe the devil isn’t real.
Some of us believe that they’d finally be happy, if only…
Oh dear. Perhaps we grown-ups are not as grounded in reality as we like to think. Maybe we are all in danger of following a few rules that don’t exist.
I know I believe some of these things some of the time. But it’s probably silly to believe that anyone who reads this will take a moment to re-evaluate their own beliefs.
Maybe even sillier than believing that pink cows are responsible for strawberry milk.
“How Many Watermelons?” by Jason Kotecki. 20 x 20. Oil on canvas. Original is available. 🔴 Shop this art!
What do motivational posters, charismatic preachers, and embroidered pillows have in common?
They regularly tell us to count our blessings.
If we’re in the midst of a good day, we’d probably admit it would take a long time to count all our blessings. Maybe even longer than it would take to count all the seeds in a watermelon. But theoretically, both could be done.
This painting was inspired by the saying “Anyone can count the number of seeds in a watermelon, but only God can count the number of watermelons in a seed.”
Today is the second anniversary of the day I needed a chainsaw-wielding neighbor to help me clear trees from my driveway so I could drive to the airport for a speaking engagement. The night before, a storm descended upon our home with a terrible straight-line wind that damaged our home and devastated our property. I had to leave my wife behind in a home with no power to push aside the grief to begin the clean-up and call insurance companies.
I can assure you, it did not feel like a blessing.
That storm turned our trees into kindling and destroyed our finances. It wrought great debt and fear, and uncertainty. It brought trauma to our family and nightmares to my kids.
But it was also a seed.
A seed that has since produced many blessings…
It connected us to some amazing people.
It taught us how to receive generosity from others with humility.
It provided us with the insurance money to buy a new roof which needed to be replaced.
It opened the door to a new space to play ball and badminton and frisbee together.
It inspired us to be even more hospitable, ushering in Moonrise Movie Nights and the Wonder & Whimsy Society Family Reunion.
It gave us a new view, one that many agree is even more breathtaking than the one we had before.
It strengthened our family and bolstered our faith, bringing us even closer to God.
I suspect that dark forces were pretty happy about the storm, hoping it would destroy us. But I believe God allowed it because even though it brought a great deal of pain, he also knew just how many blessings would spring forth.
I share this not to minimize the pain any of us has experienced, but to offer a reminder that in life, pain and joy can co-exist.
Today is also Father’s Day. My experiences have led me to believe that God is a good father. He wants to hold you in his arms and give you a big, all-encompassing hug, especially if you are struggling with some great trauma of your own. I want to let you know that he is bringing forth fruit from the ashes, perhaps some of which you may already be able to perceive.
I can assure you, the full bounty goes beyond what you can ever imagine.
I’ve just shared many blessings we’ve identified from the storm we experienced. But the thing is, we’re only two years removed from it. How many more blessings have yet to be revealed?
Only God knows how many games of catch I’ll have with my son.
Only God knows all the conversations that will be had around our new fire pit.
Only God knows how many pies will be baked from the fruit trees we just planted.
Only God knows how many photos Kim will take of the wonder that will bloom there.
Only God knows how many family dinners will be shared from our deck overlooking the lake.
Only God knows how many people will be blessed and healed in some way by their time there.
Only God knows what opportunities and relationships will arise from this new space.
The storm was a seed that produced a multitude of watermelons.
And those watermelons are filled with seeds that will usher forth even more.
Only God knows all the things that will be made possible because of a brief moment in time when a hurricane-force wind whooshed through our lives one summer day.
Only God knows the number of watermelons in a seed.
“The Sherpa” by Jason Kotecki. 24 x 30. Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD 🔴 Shop this art!
Do you ever feel lost?
It seems like an absurd question when we all have smartphones offering turn-by-turn directions to anywhere we want to go.
But having access to all the paths isn’t the same as knowing which one to take.
What happens when none of the paths you’ve tried have led to where you want to go? What do you do when you know where you are now isn’t where you want to be, but none of the roads before you seem quite right? What then?
Perhaps the best place to begin is with those little bits of colored whimsy people sprinkle on ice cream sundaes. Indeed, it’s as good a starting place as any.
According to an Internet search, the ball-shaped versions of hardened sugar are called “sprinkles,” while the rod-shaped variety is known as “jimmies.” My family isn’t particular; we just call them awesome. My youngest daughter drew a picture of a “Jimmy Machine,” illustrating how they are made.
According to her, “Jimmy goes into a machine and it prints out Jimmys onto a conveyor belt. When it goes upside down, they fall, drop onto a series of four trampolines, and then into a butt cheek pit where they emerge as butterflies. Finally, they go in lava and then turn into jimmies.”
I like to think of myself as creative, but this is PhD-level stuff.
Some might say it’s merely the absurd ramblings of an eight-year-old with an overactive imagination.
Yet, is it that much different than Walt Disney’s preposterous vision of Disneyland, a vision that investors, his brother, and even his own wife considered a disastrous waste of time and money? The success of Walt’s idea seems obvious in retrospect, but at the time, it was anything but. The same goes for “Snow White,” history’s first feature-length animated film, which was derisively dubbed “Disney’s Folly.” To those who didn’t get the vision, Walt’s ideas probably looked a lot like the blueprint of my daughter’s “Jimmy Machine.”
Overactive imagination, indeed.
If you look closely, most of the best advancements of humankind started out looking like delusions of ridiculousness. Walt Disney knew that sometimes the best path forward isn’t on the map at all, and the only way to see it is through childlike eyes.
Reminding people of the power of the childlike spirit is my mission in life. In a world overwhelmed by Adultitis, it’s been an uphill battle.
You see, the danger in branding your company “Escape Adulthood” is that it’s easy for people to discount you as irresponsible, immature, cotton-headed ninny noggins who are avoiding the responsibilities of adulthood and trying to escape the pressures of the “real world.”
As a pragmatist, I’d be tempted to think the same way if I didn’t know any better.
It gives me solace to know we are not alone. J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of those little-known books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was often accused of writing fairy tales that were nothing more than the escapist’s way out of this so-called real world. His reply was simple and brilliant. He proposed that everything was dependent on that from which one is escaping. “We view the flight of the deserter and the escape of a prisoner very differently. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home?”
Exactly.
Paying bills, upholding responsibility, and making hard decisions are important and necessary hallmarks of adult life. But the deep-down person we were when we were kids is much closer to the real us than the stilted, joyless version we often present to the world around us. Cynicism, common knowledge, and the rules that don’t exist have imprisoned us from being our true selves: passionate, playful, and curious creatures who dream big dreams and are filled with faith, hope, and love.
So no, we’re not about shirking responsibilities or ignoring reality.
We’re just trying to get back home.
That’s why Kim and I often refer to children as sherpas. Like those experienced, wise guides who escort climbers up the face of a mountain, children have a pure wisdom that can help us traverse this adventure called life.
A GPS will not get us where we want to go.
Like any good adventure, life is difficult. We need all the tools we can carry, including the ones we tossed away so carelessly in our hurry to grow up. So yes, bring your logic, your experience, and self-control. (Walt needed all of them to make Disneyland real.) But don’t forget to pack your curiosity, playfulness, and passion, for they, too, have their usefulness.
They help us to identify hidden paths missing from our map. They open our eyes to help us see what can be, which is the first step required in making it so.
And leave room in your pack for one more important but overlooked tool: whimsy.
Although Whimsyis often viewed as superfluous, it is a spark of delight with the supernatural power to uplift the human spirit. Whimsy can fill a heart with happiness and a head with new ideas. Whimsy brings a playful unpredictability to our days. It puts the heavy things we carry in perspective. The delicious ridiculousness of whimsy helps lighten our loads and brings joy to others.
Sometimes in life, we get stuck circling the same path, repeating our mistakes because we keep trying to use the wrong tools for the job, expecting a different result. The tried and true tools of adulthood are useful, but like using a screwdriver to shovel your driveway, insufficient for the task at hand.
If you are sad, stuck, discouraged, or overwhelmed…try whimsy.
It’s a small thing that can have outsized results, the same way a sprinkling of jimmies can transform an ice cream sundae.
A good sherpa knows the power of whimsy. Don’t bother looking for it on a map, but it might be the best path to take right now to get where you want to go.
In a dark world where the terrible stuff weighs so heavily upon us, we need whimsy more than ever. Whimsy lifts the soul, loosens up the mind, gladdens the heart, and opens the eyes to what can be.
“Willing To Relocate” by Jason Kotecki. 24 x 24. Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD 🔴 Shop this art!
When Kim and I decided to move to Madison after we got married, neither of us had jobs or job prospects for that matter. I’m sure some people thought we were crazy.
Kim and I didn’t have to leave home. It was fine, and it offered an opportunity. But we wanted an adventure to call our own, and suspected that the life we wanted to live would require a change of scenery.
And so we were willing to relocate.
We had to leave behind that which was familiar in order to grow into who we were meant to become. We picked Madison, but in our case, the need to move away from our comfort zone was more important than the actual location itself.
Sometimes we have to be willing to relocate to make our dreams come true. Of course, that might mean moving across town or across the country.
But it might mean moving into a different group of friends.
It might mean moving from where our customers are today to where they will be tomorrow.
It might mean moving into a new way of seeing ourselves, perhaps from the role of victim to that of victor.
When I was a brand new speaker, Kim and I helped form a mastermind group with a few of our peers, talented people at a similar stage as us. We had the harebrained idea to invite Robert into our group. Robert was a true pro that we all looked up to. He’d been speaking for years and had a thriving business. We never thought he’d actually say yes.
He did.
The thing that impressed me most about Robert was his openness to new ideas. He shared hard-earned lessons, but never paraded the fact that he was further along than any of us. He looked at us as true peers. He was always curious and open to our ideas. He regularly asked us for our opinions and was eager to try out our suggestions.
I remember thinking that when I grew up and got really successful, I wanted to be like Robert.
Here’s the thing. I now see that he wasn’t patronizing us; he was smart. He knew that in order to grow his business and get better as a speaker, he couldn’t stay where he was. He had to be willing to relocate.
Sadly, the reason he stood out is that his attitude is rare. I’ve seen many speakers – and businesses for that matter – slowly fade into oblivion and irrelevance because pride held them back. They already knew it all. They weren’t open to a new path.
Robert was successful. But he wasn’t about to settle.
If you are not satisfied with your life as it is now, you have to be willing to relocate from where you are now to where you want to be.
If you want to experience the summit, you have to say goodbye to sea level.
“Let There Be Light” by Jason Kotecki. 30 x 24. Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD 🔴 Shop this art!
When we were children, creativity was a regular part of life, whether it led to building a fort out of blocks, fashioning a fantasy world with our imagination, or coloring made-up creatures with our crayons.
We are all still creative. Sometimes we don’t think we are, and sometimes we don’t use our creativity as much as we could. But our creativity is a gift from our Creator, and it might be my favorite. Not only is it amazingly practical, allowing us to solve problems and bring beauty into the world, but it’s magical and fun, too.
It’s been written that on the fourth day of creation, God said, “Let there be light.” And then he put the sun and the moon and the stars in their places. Here’s the amazing thing: the declaration still stands, but the torch has been passed to us.
It’s hard to imagine fashioning an entire solar system made up of planets and stars, but this painting is a reminder of the connection we share with the great Creator. Although he allows us to join him in the creative process, just like children, our results don’t always look quite as elegant. But it doesn’t matter. Because the reward is still the same and our efforts still matter.
In many ways, we still live in a dark world. In the past year alone, headlines have been dominated by natural disasters, violent terrorist attacks, and senseless mass shootings, resulting in the loss of so many innocent lives. Meanwhile, our social media streams are filled with people calling each other names. We don’t need more darkness.
Our world needs more light, not more snarky putdowns of people who think differently from us.
So…what are you doing to help?
Yes, it needs more than you or I can generate on our own, but never forget that even a tiny light can fill a room. The good news is we have what it takes because we have the gift of creativity.
We can create environments for those under our care to grow, thrive, and prosper.
We can create life-giving experiences for people who need a pick-me-up.
We can create a safe space for people to express their opinions without fear, shame, or humiliation.
We can create new technologies and systems to help more people more efficiently.
We can create conversations with people who just want to be heard.
We can create moments of magic and wonder for people worn out and weary.
“Let there be light” is a declaration. It’s also a challenge.
For me, creating art to bring joy and optimism to others is one way I’m trying to help bring light into the world. Please, will you shine yours this week?
