
There are two blogs that I love reading close to every day. The first is my dear friend Michelle’s over at Dainty Daisies and the second is Elsie’s over at A Beautiful Mess. Well, about a week ago Elsie came up with the idea of each person coming up with 4 simple personal goals that “will make your life more beautiful each day” that you can accomplish before 2011 and I thought it would be fun to play along. Michelle is also joining in so make sure to go over and see her goals!
Ok… here we go!
#1. Create one new product or product line for my business. I find myself being caught in the rut of making what I know will sell or just playing catch up on orders. While I do need, of course, to make what will sell, it is very important to create something new. This goes to the core of who I am as an artist and also gives local customers new merchandise.
#2. Create one original painting. This can be any size, on any medium. I love to paint and used to have grand dreams of painting in my studio in Greenwich Village. When I graduated high school and briefly attended the Milwaukee Institute of Art this was going to be my focus. Well, these dreams gave way to painting nursery walls in Madison, but I still love the feel of a brush in my hand and I think it will open my creativity up.
#3. Walk a wee bit each day. I know, this sounds silly. We walk every day! Well, working at home and occasionally having days with lots of work hours and few Mommy hours, I can spend countless hours plopped in the basement listening to Pandora or watching Netflix while making bracelets or crocheting. I am grateful that this is my income, but days go by when I forget to just walk to the end of the street and watch the seasons change or listen to the birds. I am not going to say ‘walk a mile’ or even around the block… perhaps just to the park and back (the end of my street).
#4. Take a few minutes every day to just say thank you. There are certainly moments and days when I don’t feel like I have much to be thankful for. My kids are fighting / crying, my bank account is again in the red, the house the filthy, I haven’t said four words to my husbands except ‘pick up milk please’ in two days…. but you know what? That is all just crazy. Sure, there are always going to be weak moments when you just want to throw up your hands and say ‘I quit!’ but then there are the moments when all the kids are asleep peaceful, or playing wonderfully together, or they thank you for making dinner or your husband smiles at you across the chaos of the dinner table and it makes you want to cry because it is the same beautiful smile you fell in love with so many years and so many diapers ago. Whoever it is that I pray to quietly in my worst moments, I will also remember to thank.
I do have a fifth goal but for now I will keep this one to myself. It is a bit of a pipedream and I do not think would fit into the simple goal category but is still one that I love to think about….
Thank you Elsie for having a beautiful, inspiring, blog!