Window Hearts

When COVID-19 took the world hostage at the start of 2020, it took me a long time to register that life was going to be very different for a long time. Everything felt heavy. Getting out of bed to go no where was heavy. Eating breakfast made from the groceries we had delivered was heavy. Walking my dog down the deserted pathways was heavy. None of it was normal and it all left me feeling exhausted. Not to mention I had just become a brand new mom weeks earlier and so my exhaustion was next level with a newborn.

With the weight of the pandemic suffocating me, I knew I needed to do something to bring myself out of the COVID-19 cave I was dwelling in. Having very limited time to myself (#momlife) and the closure of absolutely everything where I live (#lockdowns), my options for 'self-care' were limited. Luckily, being creative is the quickest way for me to lift my spirits when I am feeling down. Creating something gives me a good jolt of energy. Whether I am dancing in the studio, painting on canvas, writing stories, or taking photos with my camera, my body and mind come alive.

But at this point in the pandemic, I had already taken a plethora of photos (I'm talking thousands) of my daughter and our dog. I was also out of stock on canvas and paint at home. The crafts stores had closed their doors. Going to the dance studio was forbidden by the latest restrictions. So as the days began to weave together endlessly with monotony and boredom, my only option was to write. Except I had already been journaling and blogging about the history-making virus, it's world domination and life as new mom. What else was I supposed to write? A book?

Truthfully, the thought of writing a book wasn't too outlandish for me. I had always dreamed of writing a children's book so I felt excited to dip my toes into this new creative adventure. At first, I wasn't really sure that I would actually write a book. If I did, I wanted it to reach children of all ages. I wanted it to capture what was going on globally in a way that would make sense to little minds but that would also resonate with older children. So how does a person do that? Being a teacher by trade, I knew 'how' to write it -- I just needed some inspiration. So many people were already writing children's stories about the virus, making it less scary and writing about staying at home. I needed something original but I had absolutely no ideas. Not one. So my adventure and excitement of writing a children's book kind of fizzled out for a while. That was until I began seeing artwork being hung in the windows of the houses I would pass by on walks with my daughter and our dog. There were thoughtful messages to posted for essential workers to see and little rainbows to bring a smile to someone passing by. My heart was touched. Even my days were brightened by these little acts of kindness. After seeing these simple but sweet window displays, I knew exactly what I wanted to write.

But when do mom's write books? Good question. For me, it was during nap time. Some days I would write for twenty minutes and other days I would write for three hours. It all depended on how long my daughter slept/if she would sleep at all. Sometimes she would be cradled in my arms or asleep on my chest and I would type the story with one hand on my phone. Other times, she would be asleep in the wrap against my body. Then I would have two hands free. Those days were the most productive. I would stand and sway at our dresser keeping my tiny girl deeply asleep while I wrote and drew on the iPad. Needless to say, writing this way was arduous and lengthy.

I finally self-published Window Hearts near the end of April 2020. I was elated to have created something so special for myself (and my daughter) to commemorate the kindness I was seeing in my city and that I knew was being shown across the globe.

After quashing the deep self-doubt and self-criticism I am often plagued with, I put it out there for my friends and family to see if they would like a copy of my story. Shockingly, I could hardly keep enough copies in stock for them. As word spread through the friends of my friends and family and the larger teaching community here, I found myself sending books to people and schools across our province. Then I was sending them across Canada. Next, I was shipping them across the United States and finally overseas! Teachers were reading it in their classrooms and inspiring students to make hearts to put inside the windows of their houses, their classrooms, the school building, their community centers, their retirement homes, even their care facitilites and hospitals. Even still, my heart overflows knowing that so many hearts were created with love by children and those hearts filled the days of others with simple joy. I never could have anticipated the reach this story has had or that it will continue to have but I am beyond grateful it has been shared with so many souls, both young and old. Because of that, I wanted to share it here for all of you readers. I want this story to be available and accessed by everyone who wants to read it and the best way to do that is to make it digital! The teacher in me knows that making books accessible and available to everyone everywhere is something that is imperative for literacy and learning!

With that, here is my book titled Window Hearts. Read it for yourself or to your kids. Share it with your students, your parents, your grandparents, the essential workers in your life... anyone who needs a little kindness in their day. Something simple can go a long way.