This morning I set off on my usual Saturday morning walk with my dog Barley through the uptown neighborhood. I love these long walks, but today this walk was extra special and inspiring! The feeling of inspiration is something I’ve desperately been missing in my life ever since getting diagnosed with, and fortunately conquering, cancer this past year.
But enough about cancer. I want to talk about something way more positive and important today: Easter Eggs.
As I walked through one of my favorite uptown Parks, The Green, I passed by a number of large easter eggs on display, all part of an art exhibit for the Charlotte SHOUT festival, a multi-week festival that celebrates “Charlotte’s creativity and innovation through art, music, food, and ideas.”
Each of the eggs on display – a baker’s dozen – features work by a local Charlotte artist. Barley’s standing by one called Hidden Gems, by the artist Taryn Hare, and her description says “My concept behind this piece was to create a larger-than-life crystal gem. I chose the Amethyst gemstone because this crystal represents peace and balance. It has the power to rid an environment of negative energy and transform that into a high frequency of love. I wanted my egg to be a symbol of peace and love in the city. I titled the piece Hidden Gems as a play on words. Highlighting the tradition of hiding Easter eggs and the resemblance the egg has to a gemstone. I want my piece to spark the same excitement and joy a child has spotting their first egg during a hunt.”
I felt lots of negative energy earlier this week myself. I was almost home after a 7-hour drive on the road from visiting my sister-in-law in the Outer Banks. It appeared there was standstill traffic up ahead, so I braked briefly while going 70 mph in the left lane; the driver behind me must have thought I was brake checking him and his road rage instincts kicked in; he violently changed lanes and cut me off, slamming on his brakes and leaving me no choice but to slam on my brakes, too, barely avoiding a major collision. When I changed lanes to avoid any more escalation, he recklessly pulled in front of me again and slammed on his brakes. I was so scared. Fortunately I was able to back away from him enough to avoid anything else bad happening in this situation, but the rest of that day I just felt sad; I couldn’t shake the negative thoughts and feel positive again.
Which brings me back to this egg. Getting rid of negative energy is something I think we all need in this world today. The spark of excitement, and the little joys in life – like the pleasure a child gets from spotting their first egg – is a way for us to remind ourselves to break away from the negative energy we may experience from others.
One of my other favorites was this egg called The Crown, by the artist Neidy Perdomo, who says that this piece is “not only an artistic representation of the Queen City, but a reminder of the greatness that lives within each of us, and that you have the power to create your own reality. I hope this piece challenges your perspective, it is up to you to make your life something beautiful.”
Time for me to take advantage of all this art, food, music, and innovation in Charlotte the next two weeks through the remainder of this festival.
What an amazing way to start the day and to remember to appreciate the little things, or in this case, big things – like giant easter eggs in an uptown park.