Happy 2019 and BEYOND!!!!!
Honestly, I have not a clue what Buzz is up to these days, but every time I see “2019” I hear Buzz’ voice in my head and he is as enthusiastic as ever.
How are you doing?
We are half way through January already and I have not completed the “courses” I signed up for on how to plan for 2019. While 2019 did not wait for me to be “ready”, I did not wait to implemented some new, for me, mindsets ideas. I found them when I googled Easy Breezy Life Hacks.
Not really. It was Sergio Gomez and Dr. Yanina Gomez at Art NXT Level who brought the inspiration. On one of Sergio’s Breakfast with Sergio podcases in late December, he said something that struck a chord that resonated deep within my spirit. He spoke of not just setting goals, but taking some time to look at the barriers, the obstacles. So often we are encouraged to set lofty goals without giving due consideration to what might hinder our goals. Because the barriers are still there, we miss our goals, get frustrated and feel the perpetual failure.At least that is how it plays out for me.This year, I am looking at goals but also getting real with the obstacles.
Result, I have looked at and acknowledged hinderances and as a result have made some adjustments. One adjustment was ordering new LED lighting for the studio. Six lights for less than $50.The lighting still is not quite right, but it is more right than before. (Grammarly program wants me to use “rightER”!Awe, hell no!) Before, no matter where I stood or what time of day it was there were shadows on my canvases when I painted. The shadows are not gone, but they are less intense. The barrier is still there, but it is shoved off to the side. I am calling it a win.
Emotionally I have shoved some barriers to the side. Yes, they are still in the way, but most days there is room to squeeze past. My father died October 8, 2018 and since his death I have discovered a great deal about my family of origin. It is disheartening. In my early 20s I declined illustrating a story my sister wrote and my dad swore to “get even” with me “if it is the last thing I do.” For 35 years I waited for that proverbial shoe to drop and drop it did. I was intentionally disinherited and not just me, but my children also. And the drama is not over.The final curtain has yet to fall. (See how I wove in the mention of a curtain with this photo of my painting behind the curtain?I am extra proud of this in case you were wondering.)
It goes deeper than that but the rest of the story can wait for another time.Until then here are some statistics to ponder.
One in ten adults over 60 is subjected to some form of elder abuse. Some abuse is easier to see than others. The abuse statistics jump to 50% for elders with mental limitations such as Alzheimer’s or dementia.
I typed some things and decided it could wait.In the typing I typed peewaddle as in, “that scared the peewaddle out of me.” Apparently peewaddle is not in the spellcheck.
Does spellcheck even exist any longer?I remember when it came along back in the 80s.Oh, how desperately my little department of General Dynamics wanted spellcheck.It cost $28 and our manager refused.
Oh, the hours wasted re-writing proposals and charts for want of spellcheck.
Children, back in the olden days, when my hair was the color of mahogany, we kept dictionaries in the right hand drawer of our desks (the left-handers kept them in the left-hand drawer.)Dictionaries helped but only partially.If one were a poor speller you dang sure were not going to find the misspelling while proofreading.Receive vs recieve, that I could handle, it had a little poem.(I before E except after C or when sounding like A as in Neighbor and Weigh.)But alas, there are exceptions even to the poem. Let’s just say that grannie Gwen had to rework a plethora of proposals and charts and anything else that involved stringing multiple letters together into purty words. Yes sirree, those were wild and wooly times.(It doesn’t much cotton to sirree, either.)
Today we have a myriad of spellchecking iterations.Today we wrestle and wrangle with a new nemesis, autocorrect.
Communication is dad-blasted hard. (Now I am channeling Yosemite Sam with a little Foghorn Leghorn thrown in for good measure. Do Looney Tune and Toy Story characters inhabit your self-talk?)
WHOAH!Took a little side journey there, reeling it back in to the present.
I am excited about 2019 like I have not been excited about anything in a very long time. 2019 began with a solo art show at The Texas White House and it was AWESOME!This along with an exhibition at Urban Sugar and a dual stop road trip to Shreveport, Louisiana and Cleveland, Mississippi.Swim meets and decorators!
My 58th birthday, happy birthday to me and all you luscious January babies! I have made new friends and reconnected with others. And last night I received the text all parent’s dream, an Atta-girl-Momma from an adult son. I fearlessly (yeah-right) looking at the blockades and making adjustmen ts as necessary to keep 2019 focused by eliminating all the things I COULD be doing and focusing on a single BIG thing. Oh, all the other things will happen, but the focus is narrowed.
WHICH REMINDS ME,
I have things to do.
And so do you.
THANK YOU for hanging out with me for a bit.
I hope to see more of you in 2019
and HEAR how you are tackling goals and life living
in the perfect storm that is 2019.
Peace out! Gwen Meharg
