Building

I feel more and more that I am building the life I want. I'm working towards the day to day that I want. I am surprised, much of the time, at how smooth a transition everything is.

However, right now I'm struggling. Struggling with "I-want-what-I-want-and-I-want-it-NOW". I struggle with patience, as you all know. I am working on it. And it is definitely work. Very hard work for me.

I have decided the class will begin very shortly after the 4th of July Holiday. Please email if you'd like more details (I can tell you what I'm pretty sure of so far), but I'm having a few problems with the hosting site, so I'm still ironing out a few things. And no-one wants to be committed to a brand new class right before a major holiday (assuming you are in the U.S.). My email is robynsart@live.com

So, I will keep building this life I want. And I will try to be patient. I will try to make my transitions gracefully. Do any of you have any advice for me on that?

So Excited!

I am not a patient person, though I am working on it every day. I want my 6 week class of artist empowerment goodness to start right now! I am so excited about the entire thing, and I want to make those connections with artists. I want to see everyone's creativity take off and flow like a rushing river. I will wait, I'm still figuring out the host site, figuring out how long it takes for invites to get to the students, etc. Ironing out the necessary technical stuff.

When I have my eye on something, it's generally all I can think of. I become obsessed, and I want to move at the speed of light. I learn patience, little by little.

This weekend, my oldest son graduates from high school. My first baby is going to pass into adulthood. He'll be 18 this month. Where in the world does time go? I'd speed up time for my class, but I'd slow it way down for the summer I am to have with my boys. Especially the oldest, who will most likely be joining the armed forces in the fall. I am a protector, and sending him somewhere that I can not protect him is difficult for me.

Anyway... watch for new stuff coming soon from me.

Keep on swimming, swimming, swimming...

Often lately, I remind myself of Dory in Finding Nemo... telling myself to keep on swimming, swimming, swimming...

I've always struggled with patience. And it seems lately that patience is the only survival tool I have. I'm getting quite a lesson! Know what? I'm thankful. Yep, thankful for the struggle. Thankful for having to work VERY hard to meet goals. I'm thankful because it will make the end result all the sweeter!

I wrote a while back about how it's going to be a year of change. Major changes. I will now project that the bulk of those changes won't be complete until about March. And, though the wait is totally against my grain, it's ok. There are many many things I can do in the meantime to work towards them.

It's odd... I know that all the things I do will not speed things up. And that's alright too. I'm just going to keep on swimming, swimming, swimming. So many character changing life lessons... so many opportunities for growth. In this time of adversity, I am thankful. But it's not all adversity, some of it is just life-enriching wonderfulness. Ah, isn't life such an amazing swirl of possibility?

Just remember to keep on swimming!

Amazing things are happening!

Last week, here in the Portland area, a local radio station held a fundraiser for the Children's Cancer Association. They raised somewhere around $270,000. It was a 28 hour long radio broadcast, and there was no part that I listened to that I did not get so choked up. I have been so lucky, having 3 healthy children. And I wanted to do something... something to give to these families.

So I called and emailed the CCA. Offering to take pictures of 10-12 kids a month and making one of my photo pendants with each picture to give one to each family. Well, the email is lost out there somewhere, but the phone call was read, passed to two or three people verbally, then emailed to the contact it needed to go to.

And she called me yesterday!!! However, it's funny how things work out. She was only told that I'm a local photographer wanting to donate my services, so when she called me she was talking about me being 'on call' as it were, to go take photos of kids and their families when they've been told they don't have very long. Like... going into their home with them and just making a photo record of their family. She said she did not know if that would interest me. I was almost in tears. What an honor to be asked to do this!! Wow!

I did go on to talk to her about my pendants and we started the email conversations about me donating those, so I hope to hear back from her today. I was so excited yesterday that I was shaking.

You know... my sister in law had been talking to me about patience, weeks ago. It has been something that I needed to work on. I wanted everything to happen instantly, I always have. But I am really starting to see now how things happen in their own time. Yeah, I work towards them, and I pursue them... But this photo thing, I had to give it a week to breathe, then it happens! I am learning so much about life.


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Update!! Starting today, 100% of any photo pendant purchase in my shop will go towards funding my CCA endeavors! www.robynsart.etsy.com