Martha

Guelph, Ontario

Community Box: Self-Care Edition

Featured Creator, September 2019

“At that moment, I realized how much peace there was and thinking to myself how much we deserved it. We’re supposed to be at peace. It’s supposed to be like this all the time.”

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Martha’s Story

My most treasured memory was when my son was 14 months old and my daughter was just born. My ex-husband left me a few months earlier and my whole world fell apart because I didn’t know anything different.

“It was an abusive relationship and I just thought the abuse was normal.”

I remember being in the apartment feeding my daughter and watching my son play with the cars on the floor. It was the time of day where the light from the sun was softly coming through the window and it was really quiet in the apartment.

“At that moment, I realized how much peace there was and thinking to myself how much we deserved it. We’re supposed to be at peace. It’s supposed to be like this all the time. ”

I was abused as a child but I couldn’t control that - what I can control is how I treat my kids. I am raising my children outside of the cycle of abuse that I was raised in and the abuse in my family stops with me. My daughter and son are both getting married and I am looking forward to both their weddings. It’s been a beautiful journey and I just can’t wait to see them all in their wedding dress and suit. My children are who I am most proud of in my life.

“They are my biggest accomplishments and nothing will ever top that. ”

Self-care means taking care of yourself because you can’t pour from an empty cup. If you don’t recharge yourself, you can’t give people proper love. Everyone is human and everyone deserves to be treated with kindness, respect, and love.

“It’s who I am and my love of people and helping and serving is my gift. I love making people genuinely smile. ”

My favourite part of this experience is when we sat down and made the tea blends - everyone was so lively and animated. It was really exciting to create something tangible for the community to purchase that had meaning behind it. This whole box has so much meaning behind it - so much love and care has gone into the box.

I’ve never been able to paint and creating the sunflower made me feel so happy while I was doing it. Seeing my art on the gratitude card is a humbling feeling because I don’t assume people want to keep anything I make or anything I do. I am my biggest critic so I didn’t feel like this design was good enough to buy and good enough to be on a card.

“Art goes on Hallmark cards. It’s very humbling to think maybe my work is good enough to be on a card.”

I try not to live in the past or the future. Thinking about the future makes me anxious and the past is not a place I want to be. I’ve dealt with my past and it’s what built me into the woman that I am today.

It’s taken 43 years to love myself as I am 100% - my mind, my body and my soul. I don’t want to do anything that is going to tear her down.