I road a wild donkey today!

I road a wild donkey today!  And what does that mean?  It means, I had an idea...I started a project...and rather than doing part of it and finishing it later, I road the wild donkey until it was done.

Man, does it ever feel good to finish something!

I can't show you my finished piece just yet because it's a bit of a surprise.  But here's a glimpse at the encaustics that I was cooking up this afternoon:

For more on wild donkeys head over HERE.  

My postcards are in the mail!

Yes - my postcards are in the mail!  I'm so excited to be participating in the Liberate Your Art - Postcard Swap!

I will spare you the details, but let me just say that this almost turned into another one of those stories where I talk about wanting to do something...but don't actually get around to doing it.

But not this time.  I pushed through.

These days I am trying to make a conscious effort to flip the words around, turn them on their head, and write a different story.  A story with follow through.  A story that ends in completion.  A story that feels good.

And I kind of love this story of sending your love out into the world and seeing what returns.  Thanks to Kat Sloma from The KatEye View.  I hear there are about 250 people in this swap - that's a lot of organizing!

So tell me about you.  What have you been talking about doing lately?  What's stopping you from doing it?  Perhaps now is the perfect time...

Act or be acted upon

"ACT or be acted upon." - Stephen Covey

A lesson on following through

So the other day I was talking about doing things.  

And following through on things.  

Well, wouldn't you know...it paid off for me!  

It may seem like a simple thing to some, but I can't tell you how long I have thought about contributing my photos to various Flickr pools...like Shutter Sisters & Kim Klassen's Inspiration Studio.  But actually doing it?  Well, I could speak for hours about that... 

But I am feeling the shift.  My momentum is building.  I am slowly starting to cross over from the thinking to the doing.  

Today one of my photos was featured on Inspiration Studio!  Check it out here.  I am over the moon!  Thanks Lori!  

"Accomplish the great task by a series of small acts."  Lao-Tse

Production...not perfection

I've been noticing something lately.  

I've been noticing that production seems to work well for people.  

Not perfection.  

Production.  

As in doing things.  Making things.  Following through on things.  

What an interesting concept.  

"I Love You." Plain and Simple.

I could tell he wasn’t just uncomfortable; he was in a lot of pain.  By that time, as I would later learn, the cancer had a firm grasp on his insides. 

But, as always, he still managed to put others first. 

“What’s Shawn up to today?”

“Oh, he’s in a squash tournament.  He said to say hi.” 

He took a moment to squeeze down the pain and then matter-of-factly chuckles, “Do it while you can.” 

I felt uneasy.  But I managed to murmur out a quiet, “Yep.”

I hadn’t heard this side of him before.  I wondered if that was what giving up sounded like. Or perhaps it was wisdom.  His athletic years were long gone, of course, but even so he seemed to be coming to terms with the fact that even the simplest things (like walking and talking) were becoming more difficult, day by day.  

Do it...while you can...

We buried my grandfather yesterday morning.  It was a beautiful ceremony for a life well lived.  And yet, I keep coming back to that conversation.  And I wonder: If I would have known those were the last words I would share with my granddad, would I have chosen different ones? 

Like, “I Love you.”  Plain and simple.

But these are the games that we play with ourselves when a loved one dies. 

Is there something we could have done differently?  Said differently?  If we could just go back in time and do this or say that…then perhaps things would be different.  Perhaps we would feel less pain. 

But of course we can't go back.  Instead, I breathe in the tears, face forward, and know that:

I loved enough.

I said enough.

I am enough.

Plain and Simple.