Category: passion

Finding Yourself, Losing Yourself, and Finding Yourself Again

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It’s the end of the year, and I get introspective around this time.

I also get sad, but that’s another story.

When I was younger, I refused to get sad. I was a Pollyanna girl, sure that everything would turn out all right in the end. “I’m fine,” is our family mantra, and I lived that way a long, long time.

But I’ve been in a lost period for the last few years, trying to figure out who I am and what I want to be when I grow up. In the process, I’ve changed from Pollyanna to Eeyore. I’ve been whiny, critical, and gloomy, sure the next plane will crash or my business will fail.

Sometimes we’ll never figure out what sends us spiraling. But now, five years later,  I’m grateful to be seeing the light. I love working on my presses, sharing time with my young students, and helping to run Water Street Studio. The other day, one of my students stopped by with a gift (pictured above). I was touched he thought to create a framed set of type, including the word “write” and my initials. Seriously, touched.

These days, I’ve learned how little I really can control in my life. But giving in to that helps me appreciate everything else so much more.  Now I say, “What’s the worst that can happen?” And the answer is usually something I can live with.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be a Pollyanna again. Wedged where I am feels like a good fit-a little vulnerable, a little realistic, and a lot hopeful.

All righty, then. I have some wood type waiting for me, and my hands are too clean. Back to work.

 

 

 

Humming

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Pablo Picasso

Sometimes it’s hard to think beyond the next five minutes. But my brain seems happier when there’s little down time.

Now that small business Saturday is over (and accompanying social media responsibilities), it’s time to turn back to my press and writing. This morning I worked with 6 or 7 lines of a poem I’ve had stashed away. I think it has potential but still needs massaging.

I added two new cards to the Etsy shop, and I’m going to try creating some for a few businesses in town: “eat sleep hike” for River Rock Outfitter, a new store on our first floor, and “I lurv my chick” for the organic grocer Kickshaws on the corner (she has chickens). I’m thinking about my new friend Brian’s shop, Skin Touch Therapy, but I haven’t come up with anything yet (RELAX? I’m melting? Sometimes the questions are complicated but the answers are simple, Dr. Seuss?) Hmmm, maybe I’ll feel more inspired in the morning.

Dirty Hands

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I can’t keep my hands clean these days. I’m either covered in acrylic paint or ink. Sometimes it’s both.

Today I took a gel monoprinting class from Elizabeth Woodford down at Artful Dimensions. I learned to use random items (placemats and bubble wrap among others) to create prints. Now the tips of my fingers are blue, and I’m ok with that. But before I could love being messy, I had to realize my art fills a need.

No competing. No judging. Simply creating.

Tonight I’m headed to the Visual Arts Center in Richmond for another letterpress workshop. I want to set type on a card that says, “dwell in possibility.”

Emily D. was pretty smart.

Be Willing to Change the Game

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About a year ago, I pasted a quote into Evernote by Chris Lehmann (probably from Educon 2011):

If we want our students to grow, we must do that ourselves. This weekend we believe differently. All of us have a stake in the game. Solutions must include us (and our students). We cannot solve problems by doing things TO students.

This morning, as I bumped into the quote again, I was reminded of a teacher I met this past weekend. We were discussing change and what kind of “change agents” we want to be. He paused, turned his head slightly, eyes widening: “I just realized,” he said. “I ask my students to take risks all the time….and yet I don’t put myself out there at all.”

He was referring to sharing and working online, being willing to reach out to others to learn and grow. He’d been satisfied, thus far, to be the director who told his students what to do without doing the work himself. He looked as if he had walked into a strange, new place with no idea how he had arrived.

I smiled. I’ve seen that look before. And it can be both scary and exciting.

During our session, this teacher had shared some amazing insights, and I was eager to find his space place online to learn more.

“I don’t have a space online,” he’d said. “But I guess that needs to change.”

We must model the kind of learning we want from our students. And we must also be willing to learn from them as they explore their interests and passions.

First, we must believe in the change. And then we live the belief.

This seems pretty simple, doesn’t it?

 

 

A Day of Passion

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I was reminded this weekend how powerful having a passion can be.

The Marine Corps marathon runners ran right by my house Sunday morning. I love the event as I get to watch friends, neighbors, and inspirational runners give it all they’ve got during this 13.1 mile challenge. We are at the top of a hill, and it is one of several, so the race is no easy feat.

I don’t know if you can see in this photo, but take a close look.


The hand cyclist was struggling to make it to the top of the hill, and several runners stopped to cheer him on and applaud. I wish you could have heard the loud yelling of encouragement as he pushed himself.
I watched a woman run on two artificial legs, an elderly man taking one small step at a time, and one of our hometown runners who started in last place, determined to raise money for every person he passed. He thinks it was 5,600 and he finished in 28th place!

Later that day, we drove to Arena State where we saw Ruined, an emotional play about a woman who  “both protects and profits from the women whose bodies have become battlegrounds ‘ruined’ by the brutality of government soldiers and rebel forces alike.”

The acting was superb, and although the stage sits surrounded by audience members, I was transported to the Congo. Jenny Jules, who played Mama, was amazing. Her passion for her craft brought the play to life, and I was engrossed until the end when I finally breathed.

 

 

To watch people who care so much for what they do was both moving and inspirational. We owe our students the chance to discover whatever it is that makes them feel life is worthwhile and good.