Mothers, Parents, and Loved Ones

Last December, when I received the 5am call on a Friday morning that my mother was on her way to the hospital, I was oddly calm.  However, a flood of emotions followed a couple hours later.  More came when the second call came saying if I wanted to be sure to see her again, I should plan to be there by Sunday or Monday.  I was there on Saturday.

Though I’ve had my challenges at times with my mother (seems most of us do), what was most clear to me in that day of getting ready to get on a plane to Florida to be with her, was that I was SO not ready to lose her.  While I had just spent several days in Arizona with her the previous week for Thanksgiving and we’d had a nice visit, it was the thought of not having her to call anytime I wanted that was hardest to face.  For the time of her incredible recovery (and she has just about completely recovered from a 3-10% chance of living! which is why I know call her “the miracle lady”), it was extremely hard not to be able to talk to her about any little thing going on in my life or hers.

Today I opened a card from Mom, aka miracle lady, to read “Hi to my beautiful, talented and resourceful daughter–your Mom thinks you are doing amazingly well in these difficult times.  Lots of Love, Mom”.  Tears flowed freely.  What a blessing was this encouragement I needed to hear today.  It’s been such a trying year, but in spite of all that I’m most grateful that I was able to take the month to go and be with her all those hours in the hospital and to see her through such an amazing fight for her life.

So, for children who still have their mothers/fathers, I hope you don’t have to experience something like this to realize the value of your parents.  And, for parents who have children who don’t always seem to appreciate you, know that you have the ability to be infinitely important to your children, whether this is apparent to you or not.  To everyone, don’t hesitate in speaking, writing or otherwise sharing those words of love, encouragement and support that can make such a difference in someone’s life.

Things Can Change in an Instant!

This morning I woke up reflecting on how things can change in an instant.  Certainly this is not a new concept, and it’s definitely not something I learned recently, but something I continue to learn and see over and over again in my life.  Perhaps I learned it first, and deepest when my father was killed instantly in a car accident when I was 14, though surprisingly, as deep as this memory goes, it is still a concept I forget from time to time. 

Good for me to remember that being open to what happens day to day is the best place for me to be.  My reflections began from thinking how a phone call I received about a job interview next week impacted me when it came.  I was on a certain track and feeling like things were going in one direction, but when the call came, I realized how excited I was about the possiblity it brought, and how it expanded my thinking.  Not to say that I may not continue in the direction I was heading if the interview doesn’t lead to this job, but what’s important here is the concept of remaining open to what happens.  In fact, more things happened yesterday that could take me in an entirely different direction, so my thinking was again expanded.  As a result, I am realizing, as I’ve been told more than once, that I seem to do best in life when I can stay present in today, not focusing too much on what I think will happen tomorrow.

So, moving on with this thought, and hearing a voice in my brain saying what I have heard in Klemmer trainings more than once, “as we are in anything, we are in everything,” I began to consider how this concept plays out in my art.  When I am creating a watercolor painting or a sketch, it is often the case that I start from a scene, picture or image that inspires me to go in a certain direction.  Then, as I begin to put that idea on paper, something often happens to take me in another direction.  If I remain stuck on the original idea, as in life, I can find myself very disappointed at the results and critical of myself for not perfectly executing what it was I was seeing in my initial vision.  However, if I am open to the change and remain open to it being a positive force, I often end up with something far better than I could have initially conceived. 

This is one of the most exciting and helpful things I have ever learned about the creative process, and it’s quite intimately connected to the how I view the creative forces at work in my life.  Day to day, may I not miss the blessings around me because I’m focused on the original way I was expecting something to be!