The Story of Em

Story about Winning that is Behind my Logo

I have shared this story before - but I decided since it inspired my logo change, I would remind you of the story here.

In the 5th grade I was working on a poster I had entered into a local competition about the environment. I remember that I won the competition. I couldn’t tell you for the life of me what was on the poster or the subject or anything… Except 2 things. Up near the right hand corner there was a flock of birds and it was on bright yellow poster board.

I finished my poster and got up off the classroom floor (where I preferred to draw on my poster so I could get better perspective and have space) and dropped the uncapped black marker in my hand onto the poster. It left a prominent mark near the upper right hand corner of my poster.. This perfectionist wallflower 4th grader lost her salt (aka cried like a baby - but “lost her salt” sounds so much better than the ugly crying scene it truly was).

Mrs. Quirk, one of my top favorite teachers, asked me what was wrong. All I could do was point and explain through heaving crying that my poster was ruined. She responded, “Honey, I don’t see a wayward mark on your poster. All I see is an unfinished bird in the upper righthand corner! So, let’s finish the bird and maybe give it some friends.”

She preceded to teach me one of the most memorable lessons of my life when it comes to perfection and how we can create our way out of mistakes and create something “extra” and go on to a win for our lives. She told me to make that mark into a bird and then make some smaller birds (all of these were basically fancy m’s to create the illusion of bird silhouettes).

That fancy flourish … a mistake? an initial or monogram?

a perfecting, flourishing finish!

This story is also the reason behind me saying “Well, I really dropped the marker on this one!” instead of “dropped the ball.”

Conveniently, the logo is my monogram as much as it points to the bird on that award winning poster all of those years ago.

I hope that all I do as a writer and as your Identity / Faith Recovery coach points the way to your own flourishing finish!

Did you have a flourishing finish to your week? Tell me about it!

Until next time,

Em, er um… Mel