Color me Elmer!

 (If you haven't been following my blog recently, every Friday, I take one of the many elephants in my collection and write about it, the memories I have about it, the inspiration it might give me for daily living. So here's to another elephant!)

 Yesterday I mentioned all the books in our house.  Reading is my favorite pastime. I have trouble spending money on most anything, except books.  Amazon.com is my best friend on-line!  So it’s not going to be a surprise that I have some elephants that are characters in books. Since my mind is on books, I thought today I would highlight one of my elephants that also happen to be a character of a picture book.

Elmer is probably not known by many except preschool teachers and very young children.  Elmer is an elephant that loves colors, all colors.  Elmer is a patchwork elephant made up of all the colors of the rainbow and more.  Because I like young children, books and quilting, just looking at Elmer reminds me of the things I’ve loved doing throughout my life.

For me, children make the world so much more interesting and alive.  Can you imagine a world with only adults?  (I know some people who would love such a world!) But I would hate it!  Children bring freshness to everything that has become passé to us adults.  They bring energy to a world that would die without it.  They make us laugh, often without meaning to. They are honest and forthright about the way they see the world because they haven’t yet mastered the dubious art of hypocrisy as most adults have.  In other words, not saying what you mean and not meaning what you say.

Elmer’s colors and his patchwork skin remind me of the pleasure that quilting has given me over the years.  Everyone should have something they love to do, something that allows them to become immersed outside of time.  All the acts of putting a quilt together can do that for me--the planning, the choosing of colors and fabric, the cutting, the sewing, the quilting, the binding.  I often am somewhat disappointed when I am finished with a project, because until I decide upon a new project, I am in a listless limbo.

Reading is another pastime that allows one to become immersed beyond the present time. Because of my own love of reading and books, I naturally wanted to foster the same in my daughter and the children I taught. Elmer was a perfect choice.  He came with a picture book; both were in my classroom when I was still teaching.  Elmer would draw children to his soft, colorful body, as stuffed animals so often do, and from him there was the natural path to the book itself.

Elmer and his book remind me of all the creative energy and life in color, in books, in the very young.  And he just inspired me with a new idea for a quilt.  How about an Elmer-themed baby quilt?

Do something you love doing today!