WHOLEHEARTED

What did you wholeheartedly love to do when you were a child? I loved being silly, dressing up in costumes and putting on dance recitals in my living room. I loved gymnastics so much that I could not sit through a family dinner without getting up to do handstands and cartwheels.

I also wholeheartedly loved creating. I did not know it at the time, but the enthusiasm I felt (the electric energy coursing through me and lighting me up from the inside out) while I danced, sketched, sculpted, painted, photographed, played the guitar, or performed that monologue for theater class… that enthusiasm for creativity was my calling.

But, I got busy growing up, and I inadvertently excluded creativity from my life for over a decade. I served in the military, received both a Bachelor and Master of Science and became a healthcare provider, a researcher, and a project manager.

I began to feel like something was missing. It did not occur to me all at once, but eventually I realized how much I missed creativity in my life. More accurately, I needed creativity to feel like myself.

So, I set aside all the excuses, and I gave myself permission to play with creativity once again. I let myself get messy and imperfect. I tried any creative thing that sparked my curiosity.

I decided to look at this creative journey as an experiment. If I followed my heart, my joy, my curiosity, my enthusiasm… where would I end up?

A year into my journey, curiosity led me to make a pair of earrings. The first pair I made were just for fun and just for me. I wore them a whole day and they were so lightweight that I kept forgetting they were even in my ears! I knew I had make more.

Today, Wholehearted Empire is an online shop where I sell my hand-painted, lightweight, recycled paper earrings and recycled paper cards. My hope is that the meaning embedded in my creations will embolden your heart—your courage, compassion, enthusiasm, and the essence of what makes you uniquely you.

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Welcome! I am so glad you are here!

Wholeheartedly,

Annie