Maria and I were walking in the East Village neighborhood of Des Moines, in the shadow of the Florentine State Capital dome. We came across a gallery called “Sticks” and went in. The store sells beautiful painted and wood carved activity plaques.

There were about a hundred of them, they covered all kinds of different themes and subjects.

I stopped to read them and my eye caught this one, I thought it perfected captured the spirit and drive of Maria. She is amazing. She tries new things. She inspires others. She is learning to love herself, to work hard. She laughs (and cries) easily and often, her spirit is an open heart. She lives for the moment and she loves to learn and grow.

Wow, I thought, how beautiful. I bought it for her and she loves it, it captures what we both share, a drive to be creative and amazing, to encourage others, to try new things and to learn to love ourselves, perhaps the hardest of all of them. We are living now and grown, and I knew I had to take this home from Iowa. She is trying to figure out where to put it.

And this neat thing: E.J., the very wonderful owner of the shop, actually recognized my name and said I was a bit deal!