Grey Dots & Gold Stars

One of my favourite children's books was gifted to Magoo by some friends for his Christening.
It's titled 'You Are Special' by Max Lucado.

If you haven't read it, the book tells the story of small wooden people called Wemmicks who spend their days sticking either gold stars or grey dots onto one another. The pretty ones - those with smooth wood and fine paint - always get stars. The talented ones do too. Those Wemmicks with chipped paint or who can do little, they get ugly grey dots.

Punchinello was one of those. He could do nothing right and the others constantly covered him in horrible grey dots. He had so many dots that people gave him dots just for having so many dots. One day Punchinello met Lucia who had absolutely no dots or stars. People tried to give them to her, but they just wouldn't stick.

When questioned, Lucia explained to Punchinello that she remained stickerless because she visited the woodcarver, Eli, every day. Eli, the maker of all the wooden people, welcomed Punchinello the next day. Eli spoke softly to Punchinello telling him that "the stickers only stick if you let them, the stickers only stick if they matter to you". If you decide that what you and your maker think is more important than what they think, you will be stickerless.

You can listen and watch here, if you have a spare 8 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scj3A1cLVzY

Well, I think there's something in that for all of us. :-)
This beautiful story has a Christian undertone, but Christian or not, it is a universal message.
To understand that we are all perfectly fine being the person we are as long as we are content and fulfilled.

Enough with the dot sticking people - and even the stars, for that matter.
I know I'd be a dot/star sticking machine of a Wemmick some days.
Did I not just stick a massive ol grey dot on the Mum who botoxed her 8 year old in my last post?! The irony, hey?! Then again, botoxing your own child is giving them a super sized grey dot, really!

Enough with letting those stickers stick and define us.
How do I channel Miss Lucia and her inner strength, her peace?

I recently read that our perception of ourselves is well and truly embedded in childhood and becomes the filter through which criticism and compliments are received - unless we can recondition our thinking.

What the heck did my parents do to me???

Like many, I am an accomplished compliment deflector - they all bounce right off, never penetrating my coat of "they're just saying that."

But Lady Criticism, well she's welcomed in to nestle, fester and multiply to her heart's content.

I love the fantasy visual of myself (with great figure, gorgeous hair and fabulous shoes for good measure) bounding through life with well aimed dots falling, worthless, at my feet.
And the stars, I would accept them graciously. But not to keep, they would be immediately returned to the others in kind.

What about our children?
Magoo is a walking, talking star chart for goodness' sake.
My hope is that he's collecting all these gold stars to generously dish out along his own journey.

Have a happy, star filled day.
Shar :-)