I’ve illustrated several books, however, not all of them have been published. I am in the process of completely reconfiguring my website so that I can feature more of my illustrations as well as offer my fine art work for sale right here on the website.
I’m really excited about this project because I figure it’s high time I do what I am a natural at, and what I love doing, rather than what I really suck at, and just suffer doing (web coding, for example – ARGH!) Still, I am not quite ready to completely give up the blues, yet, so I thought I’d sing them here about the fact that I cannot show you some of my better work (yet). La la la… OK, that’s it. All the blues I’ve got right now.
So, back to that web coding, and stuff like that.
Wow! OK, so I did not start writing on here everyday. However, I have been feeling great joy everyday!
First, and foremost in the JOY category lately has been the experience of becoming a Grandma. I am so very deeply grateful for being able to be at the hospital the day my granddaughter (the first grandchild) was born! There is much I would say, yet her parents are very private folks, so suffice it to say I am beside myself with joy! I am totally enchanted with this little girl, and looking forward to celebrating everyday of her life. What a precious precious gift. Life is joy.
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I am doing more of what I love to do lately. And, I see the joy of that practice becoming even more prevalent in my life. With all the financial talk around the country, I find great joy in the expression of life, and the fact that I get to continue doing what I enjoy the most for a living.
Every day there is a new opportunity to expand on creative expression, to flesh out new ideas, and share new plans. Each moment, I find myself at choice: (1) to allow guidance to show me the next step in expression and feel the exhilaration of that surrender, or (2) to block that incredible blessing by shutting it down with some form of fear. More and more my moments are guided, and I am in joy – the real joy of life.
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Awake, aware, alive, amazing life.
One of the constant battles for me as a visual designer has been the attempt to keep up with all of the coding necessary for creating working websites. If you factor in all of the reading, training, and struggling time it would quickly become apparent that I have been essentially paying clients for the privilege of getting them online. That is, until recently.
Not long ago, I discovered Artisteer. It is a drag and drop web design tool that serves me really well.
I don’t know exactly what the block was, but I spent 2 years studying WordPress theme development, and I still couldn’t get it. I’m an intelligent person. I certainly purchased and read enough books to at least get a BA in WordPress, however I would have flunked out. No go. Then I found Artisteer. Voila!
In less than 1/2 an hour, I had designed a WordPress theme with custom graphics I had created for a client. It would easily have taken me two weeks on my own, and I am not sure that it would have functioned. Suddenly, I AM FREE to do what I am truly good at, without the struggle!
Somehow, through the ethers I guess, word got out that I could custom design for WordPress, and I got a new bunch of clients.
Even more exciting, I discovered that I could change into a template for here on Blogger, or a regular html site template with all the good css built right in. (How many hours did I pull at my hair in not so silent struggles learning that?!) Now I use Dreamweaver for the meta tagging and little tweaks that Artisteer may not include, but I develop the Look and Feel in Artisteer.
I have up til now avoided the affiliate thing, but I am sold on Artisteer, and they have a great affiliate program, so I signed up. If you are an artist/designer first, and a techno-geek last, check it out. I think you will be pleased.
Nowadays, I am doing what I love: my art, illustration and visual design!
So many times I have let the shoulds and have-tos take over my life, so that there has been no time left for the it-will-make-my-heart-soar-with-joys. Luckily, there is a huge part of me that recognizes that this lifelong habit is out of balance, so I consciously seek and become aware of individuals and circumstances that will remind me to once again follow my hearts bliss, such as Melissa Dinwiddie and her Thriving Artists project.
My last entry on here was last April. It was around that time I started working at our local raw food restaurant – The Green Boheme, which I dearly love. I wasn’t just working there for many hours each week, I continued my graphic design and art businesses as well. I never knew candles had that many ends! Even though it was the beginning of another joyous joyourney, my time became even more premium and I pretty much stopped all of my personal blogging (except, of course, The Daily Napkin, although even that slowed down for a couple weeks).
Today, I got an email from an inspirational acquaintance of mine, Barbara Lopez. I followed links in her newsletter, and ended up discovering her Daily Joy blog, as in DAILY for well over a year. She says in her introduction:
“In January 2010 I set a resolution that I’d find joy in every single day. In the small, and not so small things. But how do I know I’m doing that? By blogging it. It was such a fun and worthy project that I’ve decided to do it in 2011. Hooray for joy!”
Okay, I’m inspired. I rededicate myself to acknowledging my Joy in Life. I do some creative (preferably art) project every day, I allow Spirit’s inspiration to write the Daily Napkin just about everyday my husband goes to work, and I will share my joy here. YES! Life is good. Life is JOY FULL.
(NOTE: It is now December 24, and I have not kept up this intended project. Aw, well! I HAVE been experiencing great joy!)
I was just clicking around the internet from my facebook page: Peace-Love-Happiness, to find like-minded facebook pages when I came upon the Joyful Heart Foundation’s page, which led me to their website. Wow! It seems to me that out of our darkest hour we can emerge with joyous hearts. It is the naming and the claiming and standing up in the midst of our shadow experiences that we find the bright light somehow. Therein lies the strength. And in that emergence, great joy can be discovered.
I wanted to post this because I believe this is great work that these people are doing. My heart aches for all of the children that have been and those that continue to be abused. Here is an effort to heal:
At Joyful Heart, we envision a community that is strong enough not to turn away from the epidemics of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse. We envision a community that endeavors to shed a light of healing, hope and courageous awareness into the darkness that surrounds these issues. We envision a community that says to a survivor, ‘We hear you. We believe you. We feel for you. You are not alone. And your healing is our priority.’
May each and every being on this planet find the joy from the healing of their wounds.
I discovered something miraculous a while back when I was not having such a wonderful day. It’s a simple tool that has paid off in many joyous moments.
For many years I battled an invisible “dark cloud.” It would descend on me whenever I fled into that dark place called victim. I did not realize at the time, of course, that that was what was going on. I just felt weighted by this sense of doom and I did not know how to escape it.
I worked on myself with counselors and the ongoing help of many twelve step fellowships for most all of my life. Somewhere over 30 years ago, the balance tipped. I began having more “good days” than “dark days” and that trend has continued and expanded since then. I just don’t even have a “dark hour” hardly ever any more.
The discovery of the gratitude tool has freed me of even that. At even the slightest hint of doom and gloom thoughts or the heaviness that accompanies their energy, I remember gratitude. I start listing what I am grateful for. As I focus on the task of listing my gratitudes I shift back to the “half full” glass.
Granted, it’s pretty simplistic. Still, it works. Everytime, it works. I shift into grateful joy.
