It is amazing 10 years have gone by since the day www.saintsforsinners.com officially began. I was living at 856 City Park Avenue in New Orleans and my friend Mary had inspired me to try and paint the Saint medals. I had been toying with the notion of staining the medals different colors but that just was not working out. The first set of painted medals that went out were mostly Saint Christopher, the patron of travelers www.saintsforsinners.com/stories/christopher.htm .
Mary actually painted the first one and I had it on my bulletin board prior to the flood in '05. Rick Duplantier was celebrating his birthday and he had a party. I gave hand-painted Saint Christopher medals and story cards to everyone at the party. They were really well-received and I thought they would be passed around a lot since the story card I wrote about Saint Christopher specifically said "Wear this medal for a short time and then share it with someone you love." Back then, the cards were laminated so the instruction was pretty much indelible. The folks liked their medals. The idea of having everyone give them away? That idea tanked!
I remember being happy that people were liking the hand-painted medals and stories and it gave me a boost when, after weeks had gone by, friends were still wearing the medals. I didn't realize people would get emotionally attached to their hand-painted saint medals, but they did. That was a blessing and a curse. If people were keeping the medals to themselves, my "serenity for sharing" concept was tanking just like the "share this medal with someone you love" notion was failing. Still, it was fun and exciting and invigorating to have the saints in my life and to be spreading them around. I don't know if I truly knew where I was going or what I was doing, but it was clear that at least a little bit of serenity was being spread and shared.
Fast forward and 10 years have zoomed by. Incredible. It seems like yesterday when I saw Mary painting that first medal on the porch of our house. I do remember she had painted Saint Christopher in all the rainbow colors. He looked pretty fabulous.
And now I have several saint medal hunting trips to Roma under my belt, hundreds of free saint stories written on the web site, several hundred different saint medals available, and with many more to come. 10 years is a long time. But it went by in a blink it seems. I think I need to send some love and serenity and most of all, appreciation to my friend Mary today. It was unknown to us at the time, but she was paving the way for me to change my life. I'm following my bliss as a full time j.o.b. and am so grateful to Mary for helping me to take those first baby steps. I think someone will be getting flowers today!
peace - rob clemenz @ www.saintsforsinners.com
p.s. - I promised to talk about the pictures today but am going to hold off on that until tomorrow.
