A Long Time Coming

I've been super unmotivated and unproductive lately--unproductive at work, unproductive at home, unproductive in my workouts, unmotivated to clean, unmotivated to blog, unmotivated to go out with friends, unmotivated to write my Christmas thank-yous. I'm not sure what my problem is. I guess maybe it's just post-holiday, mid-winter depression. Maybe all I need is a vacation to the tropics or something.

Regardless, despite my general laziness and blah mood of late, last night I did something productive. This particular something was not only productive, but it was also a long time coming. It was a project which had been sitting on a shelf in our computer room for about the last 2 years just waiting for me to get motivated enough to finish it. Motivation wasn't the biggest problem with this project though. It was a project of the heart, and my heart apparently just needed a little more healing before the project could be completed.

Last night I finally finished the shadow box I started in memory of our beloved little boy Steeler. I hadn't really worked on it for months, and it was sitting unfinished basically only because I hadn't found exactly the right picture for its completion. Most of the pictures I've taken since we went digital 6 or so years ago have never been printed, so finding that perfect picture meant searching through thousands of images on our hard drive, and I'd just never gotten around to that search. Last night, while searching for something else entirely, I came across an older, printed picture of our sweet boy that fit the collage just perfectly.

So here is my finished shadow box. I realize this many pictures might be a little overkill, but I just wanted to be able to share each piece of memorabilia.

This is a portion of one of the sympathy cards we received. It says
Perhaps they are not the stars
but rather openings in Heaven
where the love of our lost ones
shines down to let us know
they are with us.

The drawing was from a sympathy card from our friend Quillen


The staff at Stone House Animal Hospital made this precious imprint of Steeler's paw just after he died.




My friend Yaslyn painted this amazing tile for the shelter wall, but since it was burned in the kiln they ended up not using it.

We hung the box in our bedroom above the armoire.

We miss our sweet little Steely Man so much and think of him every day. It's nice to finally have his memorial in a place where we will see it each and every day as well.