It’s what you give…

I learned early on, you get what you give. I think it was my parents, but may have even been my Grandma Shirley, who ever now and then dropped an absurd piece of knowledge in between watering plants. I’ve had several momentous events in my life, who hasn’t? Hurricane Sandy was one of them. Our family was displaced for almost 2 years, due to the catastrophic flooding. We became active in our community, using our store, since we had no customers, to help others. I was amazed and humbled by the people who gave and gave, and we became one of them. By letting go of my problems and helping others I had a new purpose. We were able to find solutions to our current homeless situations. Some slowly, some quickly. The people in our world grew, most of them were angels planted on this earth, showing us the path that granted us new healing and growth.

Looking back it sounds more spiritual then it felt in those tumultuous days, months, years. Those lessons stick with me today. I am able to find compassion, when I should feel anger. I am able to find discipline when I just want to surf channels on my couch and eat ice cream from the container with a single spoon. I am able to find peace when the grief is so overbearing I want to just close my eyes and disappear. The answers don’t always come instantly. There are days I stumble and wander, just searching. In my own artistic journey, I do a lot of research and studying, but mostly I have to wait, patiently, for the answers to arrive. Sometimes it’s days, other times it’s months, and in the case of my most recent pottery adventures, years. I had to have lots of adventures, problematic situations, give up and give a lot, to get where I am today.