Signing Out

Okay. I just realized that I had already posted my Arts N Carafes first class, but alas, I will keep the second post.

I will try to do a better job of staying on top of this.

I actually like the picture thing. It's cool to share life in pictures.

Like I said, I feel a little stressed. Part of it is poor time management, but I need to get it together!

Hard to believe that tomorrow is March 1 already!

Bucket List Check Off

So one thing I crossed off from my bucket list was taking a horse and buggy ride. I was leaving Poland the next day, and I didn't want to have any cash left so it worked out. So here I am in Krakow, Poland. The only thing missing is my hot cocoa ;).

Spring

Although it has not snowed this winter, it seems like it's been a LONG winter. I am so ready for spring and some warm weather. As I type, my heat is blasting in the background. I am thankful for no snow, especially after seeing the amount of snow in the east coast and Midwest.

Spring is coming. I can smell it in the air and pollen is tinkling my nose hairs.

Here are some pictures I took.

The cherry blossom picture is bitter sweet. I had just left a memorial for one of my neighbors of many years. Out of the many things that was said about him the one thing that struck was when someone described him as  having an open heart. At that moment, I felt very open.

Everyone of has a reason we could close off our hearts, but it's so important to keep them open.

Arts N Carafes - Night Two

This is from my second class, and I have another class tomorrow.

This is a cherry blossom, but it also looks like a plum tree blossom. We could pick from three background colors. The great thing about the class is that each person's painting looks different.

Tomorrow's class is another cherry blossom, but it's in a more Japanese cherry blossom style. So looking forward to it. And it's so awesome to look around my home and see paintings I created.

I am creative when it comes to writing and painting is something new to me, but I found it very relaxing.

My friend Crys and I

Hanging on my bedroom wall

Arts N Carafes - Class One

I've gone to a place called Arts N Carafes twice.

It's a great concept. You come to class empty handed, and you leave with with something you have painted.

There is an instructor who walks you step by step through the steps to recreate the work. The painting is called "Starry Night," but I added a twist. See below.

Empty Canvas

In Progress

LTB the Artist

LTB and It was a Dark and Starry Night

I'm Still Here

I find myself once again falling behind in my blogging.

It seems like a lot of little things are keeping my busy, and I feel so behind.

So, I am will try to a better job of keeping it together!

Scroll Article

 Here is the article from the January 1 issue of my church's newsletter.

For this issue of the PCC Scroll, we are coming from the theme “Living with Purpose, Avoiding Apathy.”

When I sat down to begin writing my article, my mind wandered back to my college days. During that time, I was on the board of three student groups and on the student senate. I was going to school fulltime, and I was working part time. I was constantly going and going. I would move blindly from school to work to one event to another. I was doing a lot, but I sometimes felt disconnected from all of the activities.

For many years after college, it was the same way. I was doing a lot, and I was involved in so many things. I can remember one period of my life where I felt like I was just performing a bunch of roles I had been cast into. I had a role at church, and I had a role at my job. And (good, bad, or otherwise), I have always been a model student who performs what is expected of me. But truthfully, I never felt like I was accomplishing anything.

At some point in time, I reached a breaking point. I realized that I was doing a lot of things, but I wasn’t doing any one thing well. I realized that I could do a whole lot of “tasks” and still feel apathetic. I had always considered apathy to be lack of activity. But, for me, apathy was not about lack of activity. Apathy was doing a whole lot of things I had no passion or interest in doing.

It was at that point that I started looking at what I should really be doing with my time, life, resources, and gifts. What was I created and called to do? What areas was I passionate about and naturally gifted in? I was trying to identify my purpose.

Looking at my life, writing was one area that stood out. As I began writing more for the Scroll and for my job, another area emerged. That area was editing. If I had continued to be busy on the wrong things, I am not sure when or if this area would have been revealed to me. But it has become part of my purpose.

The area of “helps” is another area that stood out. I have always scored highly in this area, and most Sundays (pray for me please) I can serve freely and unhesitatingly in this function as an usher.

I took the time to look up the words apathy and purpose before I began writing. One of the definitions of the word purpose really stood out to me. It’s in the Bing Dictionary, and it simply says, “reason for existence: the reason for which something exists or for which it has been done or made.”

And that is really what it comes down to. We can fill our lives and time with a lot of activities, but this can be harmful because it distracts us from what our true purpose is and that is extremely unfortunate.