I don't know about you, but...

... some of the best stuff in life comes from the hardest places, from the spaces in which you can't see the good that's yet to come.

It's not that we want to go through the tough seasons, but we somehow acquire something on those sacred journeys that can't be obtained from any other place.

That's how the heart cards and hedgehogs came to be.

She received the worse news possible...

Juliet's cancer had been in remission for about five years when she called me with the news, "It's back."

Juliet was one of my "ride or die" friends-- the kind you meet in grade school, the kind who walk with you through "all the things" (including life's highs and lows), the kind you can't envision anything happening to even though you've both walked through it all before.

I made the 2.5 hour drive to Florence, Alabama see her immediately.

... and then something happened.

We got into UAB (a hospital in Birmingham, where I live). They were able to give her the proper diagnosis, so she could get the medical help she needed. 

And then, through a series of divine connections and relationships from the past, we got her into a medical trial at M.D. Anderson, a world-recognized cancer center in Houston.

We took 40 cards we created to give to the hospital staff, Uber drivers, and others who served us-- to encourage and thank them for helping us.

They were so well-received that found a local art shop, bought more supplies, and set up "studio" on the hotel ironing board.

Everyone needs to be seen, everyone needs kindness.

That's what we learned. 

People need connection. 

The hustle of life, all the moving directions we go (often taking us away from close family and friends), the pain we walk through while wondering what our purpose really is...

It makes a big difference when someone pauses and notices us. 

That's what the cards did. The handmade art with personalized messages let people know that we saw them, that they mattered.

We kept doing it...

The cards became a tangible project Juliet and I could do, both together and apart. 

As a professional photographer, I began capturing what my eye saw in the color palette of sunsets and  beaches, taking the "color theory" of Creation and placing it on small pieces of paper. 

Juliet found herself taking the focus off her pain and placing her energy towards loving others. She decided that even if serving someone else doesn't erase what you're walking through, it does often redirect the emotion as you "comfort others with the same comfort you have received" (2 Corinthians 1:4).

So we made more + more + more + more

We took the cards with us every time we traveled to Houston. We became known for them. 

And we passed them out around our hometowns (Juliet even left stacks of them at restaurants and stores, leaving traces of kindness to people she would never see.).

I rented a small studio near my house (I was getting too much paint on my floors and furniture), and invited others to join me.

Local newspapers and TV news stations ran stories about the cards.

The numbers of one-of-a-kind cards topped 5,000...

... and then 10,000...

... and even 20,000 and beyond. 

I wasn't expecting this!

One night I went to my studio. I had too much energy to sleep. 

I painted a bit, and then I started writing-- typing into the Notes App on my iPhone. 

I wrote about God and love and grace and kindness...

And somewhere I talked about a hedgehogs-- how they are as tender as puppies when they are born yet grow spikes to protect them as they get older (just like people).

And throughout it all I realized that I had done the same thing. I had been through enough of "life" to develop my own protective mechanisms ("spikes"). 

In realized all of us do the same thing in some way. Over time, we isolate.

Yet we all long to be seen, and we all need kindness.

I called a friend who edits books.

"I think you have something here," she said. "Let's work on it!"

Over the next few months, Mae was created-- a story for kids (and adults) about expressing who you are and blessing others with the every day, tangible acts of kindness (like we experienced with what we now referred to as heart cards).

Hearts & Hedgehogs became a thing...

My husband Gene held up one of the heart cards onstage at the book launch event we hosted at the Birmingham Museum of Art-- several months after releasing the book.

At the launch party, we saw: 

✔️ Children creating their own cards to share with others

✔️ Adults connecting to the story of Mae the hedgehog

✔️ People of all ages interacting in the beauty of being present to each other and seeing each other as the gift God made them to be

From Juliet's phone call, an initial batch of 40 cards, and a heartfelt story...

✔️ 6,000+ AL students reached

✔️  9,000+ hand-painted kindness cards distributed

✔️ 3,000-copy print run of a children's book sold out within months

✔️ Growing statewide across Alabama (book currently in 10+ local bookstores in our great state)

✔️ Growing national reach (book currently carried in bookstores
in over 13 states across the US)

And we're just getting started!

The "superpower" of the message is...

✔️ Everyone has their own version of "awesome" that's inside of them, waiting to be released into the world.

✔️ Sometimes they just need to be reminded of what it is, of how valuable they are.

✔️ It doesn't take "big things" to make "big impact." Small acts of kindness create massive momentum, and they do so quickly!

The Path Forward