Creating a Life I love Through Art
This is just one of my many, many life lessons I’ve had recently that I thought I’d share. I’m getting better and better at it everyday!
Sending you all love, and hopefully you can forgive yourself as well. I’m sure you are doing the best you can with what you know.
xo
Hello! Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve written. I hope the holidays went well for everyone.
I’m working through some feelings about old friends. I think I have probably always seen my life as seasons and chapters. In one chapter these people where the ones I was super close to, or in this one, I was doing these things, and had this friend. Seeing life this way has made it a lot easier for me to recognize that these people were in it for that specific time and place, for lessons I needed to learn, and they aren’t necessarily going to be in all parts of my life. Now that’s not true for everyone. There are some friends where we have walked through more than one chapter together, hand in hand, and it’s been exactly what both of us needed. But when that happens, I think it’s because we were both learning and growing together, and from each other. Once the growth doesn’t feel in sync anymore, it makes sense that the relationship isn’t as strong, or it just goes away.
Even though I really get this intellectually, and have seen it play out many times in my life, it still makes me sad when I think about old friends. I feel sad that I don’t push to have them in my life, even if I know we are in different places. I feel guilty that I’m not missing them the way I feel I SHOULD.
I love my old friends. The ones that were with me through so much. The very small, few that knew everything about me, and I knew everything about them. I miss feeling like I had those select people where we could talk and laugh for hours. I miss feeling that comfortable with someone. I miss that we could finish each other’s sentences or give each other a LOOK and we knew exactly what that meant.
There is a lot that I miss.
But I’ve changed. I’ve changed a lot. Some of these friends, it’s been 20 years since we were close. That’s a whole lifetime! I wouldn’t even recognize myself. For other friends, it’s been more of a slow burn. Maybe we stayed friends longer than we should of, but because of the love we both had, we stayed? For those friends, I’ve also changed.
I don’t miss the relationship.
I don’t miss feeling like I couldn’t fully speak my truth. I don’t miss feeling like we couldn’t work through anything.
Growth is hard I am realizing. I love learning about myself and growing, but this is one of those horribly painful growing pains. I’m just unable to swallow down how I feel anymore, and I can’t keep old relationships alive if that is what it takes. I would have loved it if we had moved at the same pace, if we had worked towards similar things. But I can see now that ‘my way’ isn’t the right way.
It’s just different.
So in order for me to take care of ME, to honor ME, I will send love.
I will send the love that has always been there from the beginning of our friendship. But I need to hold myself up with more love than I have before, and I cannot settle when it doesn’t feel right.
I love you for the memories we had together, for having you to tell my secrets to, for feeling included and safe in your presence. I will always love you and I will continue to send you love as you journey through your life.
I appreciate writing in the silence.
I appreciate that I trust I can move through my feelings.
I appreciate that I am resilient.
I appreciate that these noise cancelling headphones keep me wayyyyyyyyyyy more focused.
I appreciate that my hubby is always trying to support me any way he can. Even when I push him away.
I appreciate having a schedule.
I appreciate actually getting things done.
I appreciate trusting that the solutions will come, probably when I stop worrying about the problem.
I appreciate how bright blue the sky is.
I appreciate knowing I can pick my battles.
I appreciate these exciting, creative ideas.
I appreciate being out of the house.
I appreciate that feelings no longer cause shame.
I appreciate that it is okay for me to feel sad.
I appreciate that I can make the changes I want/need at any time.
I appreciate that I can see all these rows and rows of books.
I appreciate that our December looks like your May.
I appreciate that I have fuzzy kittens waiting for me at home.
I appreciate hot tea all day long.
I appreciate recognizing that maybe I feel shitty because I didn’t do my writing this morning. Maybe I can’t just skip something like that.
I appreciate having the fireplace on, once the temperature hits 68.
I appreciate remembering that I am powerful.
I appreciate noticing so many things I am grateful for.
I appreciate that I am creating!
I appreciate being able to work things out with my relationships.
I appreciate recognizing that I can improve my confidence.
I appreciate learning lessons everyday.
I appreciate all the gifts that continuously come into my life.
I appreciate the silence.
I appreciate that my kitten knows when I get up in the morning that it is our meditation time.
I appreciate watching this beautiful hummingbird flutter in front of me.
I appreciate trusting that my emotions are all safe to feel.
I appreciate my bravery.
I appreciate that it’s okay wherever I am emotionally/mentally/physically.
I appreciate having a really awesome morning workout.
I appreciate allowing the tears to come out.
I appreciate a hot bath.
I appreciate good rest.
I appreciate that I am learning to trust my intuition better than ever.
I appreciate knowing that my body is doing the best it can.
I appreciate being capable of love.
I appreciate being loved.
I appreciate being ready to work through issues.
I appreciate my willingness to be vulnerable.
I appreciate my desire to show up for myself, for people I love, for strangers.
I appreciate leaving small gifts for random people to find.
I appreciate the slight rustling of trees in the breeze.
I appreciate the smell of my kittens when I stick my nose in their fluff.
I appreciate tiny beautiful moments that make up a day.
Oh my gosh I have returned! Sheesh! I can’t believe it’s been almost a MONTH since I was writing on this blog.
Actually it seems even longer.
I don’t know about you, but the past month has been an absolute blur of change and newness. We had our daughters Bat Mitzvah on Saturday, and the week before, Andy and I were flying all over the country to find the best therapeutic boarding school for our son. Our month has been ridiculously intense, full of travel, note taking, difficult conversations, extreme amounts of planning, form creating, negotiating, discussing, getting screamed at, and running on empty.
I feel like I have hardly come up for air.
How is it that some days/weeks/months are so action packed?
We always think once this event happens, I can finally be more present.
Or once I get this new job I will be happier.
Or when I have a baby, my life will feel in order.
Adding (or subtracting) any element to our lives is not going to be the quick fix. Life doesn’t have a ‘quick fix.’
It is a constant pruning, backpedaling, moving forward, then slipping back again, forgetting, lashing out, apologizing, feeling alone, reaching out, moving forward again, trusting, choosing a different path sort of experience. It’s full of so many parts that no one wants to talk about, but all they exist!
I’m recognizing again and again that LIFE continues to throw curve balls our way, and it’s our job to figure out how to mindfully maneuver everything with grace and muster forgiveness when we don’t.
I think for me, my biggest issue is trusting. I still get a crazy amount of emotional overload where I feel like a blown head gasket. I obsess and I get loud and my tone is not always very nice. I can FEEL myself being a nightmare. I can HEAR myself getting lunaticy, and yet, calming myself down is excruciatingly difficult sometimes.
Have I improved?
I guess as opposed to just putting myself down, I can ask the important questions. Have I improved?
I would say I have in the sense that I can SEE what is happening. I can SEE when I am BLINDED by emotion. When Andy suggests that I meditate or do some art to take care of me, I still bite his head off. But maybe not QUITE as often as I used to.
In the middle of the siren of my emotions, there lately has been a tiny, tiny sliver of light where I can SOMETIMES feel capable of making a choice. This is when I may recognize that I can get in my meditation closet and cry and write and breathe and be. So that is change. I CAN pick my legs up and remove myself (though it’s a super slow process) from where I am into a place that can lead me to functioning again.
Anyway, it’s been a tough month.
I have put myself down a lot. I have felt like I am just doing work for the kids and nothing for me. I have felt like I’m spinning my wheels. I have said mean things to myself. I have cried and cried and cried. I have felt alone and angry. But after these huge events have ended, I can also look back and see that I have learned.
I can see that maybe, even though my intentions were to remain in peace, I didn’t do as well as I could. But I don’t need to be MAD at myself. Maybe I just need more practice, maybe I need more systems in place that I can trust. Maybe I need to walk away more.
Maybe I need to choose Jackie more often.
No matter where I am, I know I can pick myself up and start over.
Today is a new day.
So here I sit, only 3 days after this Bat Mitzvah, with piles of laundry around me and a ton of little tasks that still need to be handled.
And I can choose me.
I can make the choice that if I’m tired, I may need a nap. If I need to feel, maybe I do that.
We are so so so much better for the world and everyone in it when we have taken care of our needs first.
One of MY needs is to feel like I am moving forward IN MY LIFE. Writing in this blog, whatever I am writing, makes me feel like I am. Even if no one reads it, I am feeling stronger and better about me as a human. I am taking care of my responsibilities and my desires. I can do that. I can do hard things.
I am strong and capable, and I can move forward, even if it’s in inches.
Happy Friday!
I mentioned in 2017 how difficult it was for me to LEARN the tools necessary to get where I want to get.
For years I think I’ve had it in my brain that certain pieces of life that take TENACITY and FOLLOW THROUGH will just get easier, and I will be skipping my way down the lane without a care in the world. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to realize that this isn’t the way life works.
We. Have. To. Work. For. What. We. Want.
Wow. Brain exploding right now.
Now it’s not that I am lazy. I am the opposite in many ways. I have a buzzing brain that is constantly dreaming up amazing ideas, and I am getting things done all the time.
But usually they are only things I enjoy doing. ahahah
One of my GOALS is to be able to sell prints of my artwork (if I choose), and to have a simple, easy to follow website. Wellllll as you can see, the only way I am going to have either of these in my life is to learn some things that I MIGHT NOT LOVE.
Dun Dun Dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!
It was a tough concept for me to wrap my brain around last year. Partly, I realized during our New Years self exploration week, is that I’ve had a really unhealthy relationship with TIME. I always felt like time was running out, time was disappearing, time was dissolving! With that belief, I never wanted to be stuck doing something that didn’t bring me joy. So instead of sticking with learning something new (like putting together a website I really enjoy),
I would just stick to making art.
I have a really good girlfriend who is also an artist. She told me that she views working on her website just as an extension of her art. Though I love that concept, I hadn’t been able to grasp that idea for myself.
So I fought against it.
I wanted to complain and feel annoyed and irritated that I NEED to take the time to LEARN SOMETHING LIKE THAT. Rrrrrr…
After I realized that time only runs out quickly IF we believe that to be true, everything else has started to shift. I can say that as I sit here learning an online Photoshop class, and genuinely enjoying it. Ha! I am learning! I can understand it and I can see how it will help me get where I want to be. Yessss!
Finally, now I can see the joy in all of it. Time isn’t running out, I have plenty of it, and it’s my job to get where I want to. I can do this. Even if I am tired and long to sit and paint or draw, I can do this first. I can make learning a priority.
I’m back! The hubby and I took a little vacation to Ohio while the kids have been gone. It was so wonderful to see a part of the US that we hadn’t discovered. Ah! We went to Cedar Point and rode roller coasters until I thought we were both going to puke. hahahha And it made me realize one of the (many many) reasons I love him so much.
He shows me how to play.
We were at an amusement park for 8 hours by ourselves! We laughed and teased and kissed and played and ate french fries. When we were leaving with a flip flopped stomach, I felt myself wanting to cry. I never knew how to play before I met him. Never. Life was a constant tiring cycle of not feeling like I was DOING ENOUGH. I would NEVER have gone to an amusement park and spent MONEY just to play.
Isn’t this kind of thing CARELESS? RECKLESS? Not being an adult?
Maybe life is supposed to be…. fun. Maybe that’s just not what we were taught, but maybe it’s actually supposed to be a LOT OF FUN.
Anyway, I’m back home with a new appreciation for my man, and my life, and a new desire to wrap my arms around everything that is FUN and PLAY and smother my face into it. Engage in it! Be present with the laughing and the smiles and the fluttering hearts.
What if life is supposed to feel good?
Sunshine and Cerulean 