The Unexpected Christmas Gift
Written by artist
In December 2013 after a year of creating blank-cards, notebooks, reversible ShweShwe hats, aprons and geometric shapes that glow in the dark, items I was hoping to sell at an end of the year market, this market was cancelled.
I was at that time a fulltime yoga teacher and the Christmas Holiday seemed an ideal time to sell my new products, at the same time creating work for people in the process.
Sit down to write what you have thought, and not to think about what you shall write.
William Cobbett
I had been a pre-primary and art and craft teacher for 24 years before I opened my own yoga studio at home in 2001. Since that time, I had written a pre-primary textbook for an education publisher incorporating my lifelong experience. However, I felt that I should attempt, at least once, to write my own children’s story as I had been telling stories to children for decades!
I was suddenly faced with 2 free weeks without any obligations and decided to sit down and see if, somehow, I could create my own story, literally out of thin air. My own suburban surroundings and my contemplation of it gradually evolved in “The Little Lemon-Tree that Stood.”
The tree was given to me by a friend and started out in a pot. The moment it was transferred into the earth it blossomed and was lavish in its lemon output. As I wrote and the story started to manifest, I illustrated It in simple terms, never mind not being an illustrator. (My experience was not in drawing). The story demonstrates the interconnectedness of all of Nature.
The story allows lemon-tree to share its own perspective and experience of the “people in the house”, the seasons, (sometimes in their wildest ways) and the connection to other forms of life and the past. It is a remarkably reflective little tree whose sense of “inter-beingness” leads him to its own muse.
It took another 2 years or so to prepare and fine tune the “book” for printing. It was done in the same way as my designer notebooks and blank cards.
The books I printed have been sold over the years and are also available as both e-books and printed books on a variety of platforms.
Amazingly enough after completing the initial version of the story early in 2014 I was invited and sponsored to have a stand at the last Design Indaba expo at the CCDI that early February. That became my first “market” experience, after Lemon-Tree had made its initial stand and I had lost money on that cancelled market.
The idea of creating my own story was grounded and found its roots in the following years,
with the navigation of some surmountable unknowns to get it printing ready.
This is to encourage anybody with a special idea to look out for the opportunity to crystalize it, when an unexpected “opening” arises. You may be supported in unexpected ways as I was, now 10 years ago.
You can find a copy of The Little Lemon Tree that Stood on Amazon, Smashwords and other ebook stores.