The Missing Pieces
The Missing Pieces - Originally Posted February 4, 2016
Spend time with those you love. One of these days you will say either, “I wish I had.” Or “I’m glad I did.”
Zig Ziglar
This post has been long fermenting. It’s a hard one to write. Situations that make you take a good look at yourself often are challenging. I’m a fortunate person, I’ve done a little moving around in my life, enough to see a few places, but not so many places to feel like I don’t have one I call ‘home’. The hard part is, when you move, you leave people too. I have left people who in my heart are and will always be very special friends. People I would love to see every day. But…I don’t see them on a regular basis, or even enough to call it occasionally – and that feels ok most of the time with our lives so connected by the web, but then you get a reminder of how short life is…And. That. Makes. It. All. Different. All of the sudden you realize maybe you aren’t spending your short journey on this planet with all the people you should be. What do you do when in your heart you have more than one place you call home and they are so very far apart?
The key question to keep asking is, “Are you spending your time on the right things?” Because time is all you have.
Randy Pausch
I am so grateful for the life I live. For a day job, I spend my time with these amazing little people full of wondrous energy, they put a smile on my face and love in my heart every day. I also am lucky to spend time following my passion; painting, creating, and writing. I have time with my family and nearby friends, which I so highly valued. I love to learn and I have resources for studying and learning things that I am interested in. Every single day I am grateful for the amazing life I live and the fact that I truly love what I am doing. I like to think I make a difference in the lives of others as well.
Life is short. Art endures.
Hippocrates
This was originally going to be my New Year’s post – that is how overdue it is! I love each New Year when we have a chance to reflect back on our lives and the choices we make and which parts of our lifestyle we want to carry forward, which to leave behind, and what new experiences we want to add to the coming year. I don’t really make resolutions per se, but rather use the time to reflect and make choices. But….what if you reflect on your life and realize you are missing a piece? Its kind of like a jigsaw puzzle, when it gets all finished and you discover a piece has been lost…it just isn’t complete. With a jigsaw puzzle you can’t always find that missing piece, but with your life you continue to yearn to get that whole feeling and it’s harder to stop looking because it is out there. You build a wonderful life where you are and all of the sudden you realize you dropped a piece along the way. It just doesn’t sit well.
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau
Truth be told I have barely painted since the New Year. I’m an intuitive painter, I listen to my soul, I have a blank canvas with no plan for the outcome, and what is in my heart comes out to fill my canvas, I’m not sure I want to see what that is right now. When I realized that, I knew I needed to stop avoiding this post and just write it, because much like avoiding my canvas I was avoiding writing and facing the dilemma that is in my heart. I won’t be cryptic making you wonder what I’m talking about it, I have a very dear friend who has been battling stage 4 bone cancer for several years, she is far away, she is and has been an important part of my life, almost like a bonus Mom – but for the last 17 years, since my last move, I have only seen her a handful of times. We live so far away its just not easy – ugh – and now as the cancer is gaining a stronger foothold on her life I have a floodlight shining on how very short life is. And that piece, that is missing, maybe is more important than I knew. Its all about choices we make. I wish I could say I’ve figured it all out, I haven’t, but this is a start. I’m sharing this intersection of my life and art hoping to shine a light for you.
Life is short. Art long. Opportunity fleeting. Experience Treacherous. Judgment Difficult.
Geoffrey Chaucer
I’m leaving this post here, just as it is, because life isn’t always all buttoned up with clear answers in front of you. I’ll be returning to my canvases, continuing to reflect, hoping each day I’m making decisions that are right for me. No new paintings in the gallery today….but they will be coming.
Art must take to the road and risk all for the glory of adventure.
Lawren Harris
Light, Love, Laughter,
Shannon
