In leading Car Window Poetry workshops over the past few months, most have been with kids. I love getting to hang out with kids and watch them come alive to the power of their words as a way to help others. There's something special about kids' perspectives and a lot we can learn from them.

However, I got an awesome opportunity yesterday morning to help foster that same spirit in grownups. If we're honest with ourselves, we're actually not that much different than kids. My friend, Annie Kate Jones, says, "Within every adult, there is a small child relentlessly searching for love, security, and foundation."

As Oprah so famously says, "There's a common denominator in the human experience that we all share. We all want to know that what we do and what we say and who we are matters. We want to be validated... Do you see me? Does what I see mean anything to you? Do I matter to you?"

It's easy to go through life thinking no one sees you or hears you, or even that you don't matter. We think we're too busy to reflect, too consumed with everything else to consider our own stories, to assess our own value.

In preparation for yesterday's workshop, I listened to a lot of Mr. Rogers interviews (which I totally recommend!!!) and, in an incredible interview with Charlie Rose, he says, "I'm very concerned that our society is much more interested in information than wonder. And noise, rather than silence... How do we encourage reflection?"

So yesterday, that's what we did: we reflected. We spoke to that which is essential about us, that which is magical about us. We gracefully received our own magic through writing, so we could share it with others. I'm a believer that you can't truly believe what you share with others will matter to them until it first matters to you.

What is essential about you? What is magical about you?

I encourage you to reflect on those questions sometime this week, preferably right after you read this blog post, and write those reminders in a poem. Download a few Car Window Poetry cards and share those reminders with someone else because, odds are, they need to hear them too.

With love, 

P.S. A huge thanks to COCO Crafted for hosting yesterday's workshop + creating space for us to come together and share words!