This is for creative Therapy catalyst
eleven.

Here’s the journaling:
You gave me the love of words.

My first memory ever is of you sitting on our parents’ bed and reading
the newspaper. I was so envious, I asked you to teach me to read, too.
And you did. One letter at a time.

Yona, you may not know this, but you gave me the biggest present anyone
ever gave me. You gave me the love of words. Over the years, through
sad, boring, and even happy times, I always had books. It didn’t matter
where I was, with whom I was, or what I did. As long as I had a book or
two, life was swell.

Those few hours we spent together opened up an entire world for me. It
became my best escape. My way of falling into other people’s lives. My
way of living, loving, learning. My favorite thing in the whole world.

I went through a tough childhood and didn’t have a lot of good friends.
But I always had books. I lived vicariously through so many of them. I
still remember how you drove me to bookstores far away just so I could
pick my favorite books. I remember how much you supported my love of the
written word. From that first memory and onward.

Over the years, many things about me changed. But not my love of
reading. I still read two books a week, most weeks. I still crave the
words, the stories, the lives that I get to experience. I still carry a
book with me everywhere I go. It’s still my very favorite way to relax,
escape, and to feel happy.

I want you to know, Yona, that I owe it all to you. To that moment when
you didn’t tell me to leave you alone. That moment when you let me lie
there, next to you, on Mom and Dad’s bed, and showed me how to read each
letter.

You gave me the love of words, my sister. The best present I’ve ever
received in my whole life.

This week’s catalyst
is about “What do you feel pessimistic about?”

Journaling Reads:
I used to get pessimistic about everything. I felt that if things could
go wrong, they would. Then, I realized that with time things started to
get better and look less scary. So I learned to tell myself that if I
feel down, I just have to wait a little longer and, with time, all of it
passes.

This week’s catalyst
is about “what makes you, you?”



I used the cardboard to emphasize the feeling of being “bare” and the
authentic me. I also tore the papers to give the impression that all the
layers of me were stripped off and this was the true me.

Journaling Reads:

what you see is what you get.

that’s me.

i don’t mince words. i am not cruel but i also don’t lie. i have no time
to play games. too many people have messed with my head and i refuse to
play with yours.

when you get me as a friend, you get a loyal person who will always be
honest, kind and generous.

i will not change on you. i will not deceive you. i will not stab you in
the back. i only know one way to be and this is it.

it may take a while to get to know me. to see that i truly care. and i
really will be there. always.

you may be confused. you may think there’s more under the surface. you
may wait anxiously to see what’s really going on.

but it’s really simple with me: what you see is what you get.

always.

This week’s catalyst
is about “what you like best about yourself.”



Journaling says: There aren’t many things I like about myself but
I will always cherish my ability to love people in an endless and
unbounded way. When I love someone, even if just a friend, I give that
person 100% of myself. I am always there and will always do anything
needed. My capacity for love is my very favorite thing in the word.

This week’s catalyst
is about “the best part of your day.” I took a bunch of the photos I’ve
taken of David this year and made this.



The journaling reads:
Since the beginning of this year, I’ve been taking daily photos of
David. It guarantees that we spend some quality time together every day.

In the last month, we’ve also started taking walks when I come home and
it’s our time together. Now when I walk through the door, David says,
“Go for walk, Mommy?” I grab my camera and we run out the door. We hold
hands, we talk, we look at the flowers, we laugh, and I cherish each and
every moment.

What started as a fun little project has become the best part of my day.

Here’s my art for the first
catalyst. It was about “something you lost”.

Journaling Reads:
I am the girl behind the camera. I am the one who takes photos I capture
the moments I preserve the memories. There was a time when I was in
front of the lens. When I let people take my photo, but now when I see a
photo of me I cringe. I see all the flaws all the fat all the ugliness.
I lost the ability to see myself clearly. I can’t remember what it felt
like to look at the photo and see me. I miss that.