Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

You can’t find your passion, thinking about it in your head. Marie Forleo

How long will it take…? It will probably depend on how often we practice, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.

This weekend was the Toastmasters District Conference on Zoom. This was my first time being an author on Author’s Corner. There were four authors and in our own breakout room, visitors came to see us. What an interesting group of people came to talk to me, and so many people would like to write something, but they don’t have time, don’t know how to start, don’t know if they should, or like someone who visited me, has been entrusted with her father’s writings and is expected to do something with them.

It is a daunting process, and we make it more daunting by building it bigger in our minds than it is. We worry about publishing and how our writing will be received before we write it.

I listened to a valedictorian speech posted to YouTube on the weekend and he said he found out he was being considered to be a valedictorian candidate and so he worked really hard and won the honor. He felt so good for fifteen seconds, and then there was the sixteenth second when he thought of what he had given up to get the award, and it didn’t seem worth it. He didn’t have the experiences he could have had in his last year of high school because he was focused on an award.

It makes sense working toward an award hollows out the award, and what if you don’t get the expected award? What if he hadn’t known he was in the running for the valedictorian award and he got it? It probably would have been a better experience and the icing on the cake of a wonderful last year of high school. Don’t we love it when people are genuinely surprised when they win an award? Don’t we love it when something comes to us that we weren’t expecting?

Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you. Oprah Winfrey.

We expect to feel more from a big achievement, what we don’t realize often is the joy comes from the doing, and when the project is complete, so is the joy. This is why at the end of a project we need a new project to work on because if we don’t start something new we will feel empty, lost, and adrift. This is why when the heavy days of parenting are over, and the nest is empty we need something to pour ourselves into. Creative endeavors, volunteer work, and becoming involved in service organizations can give us passion and purpose. We learn by helping others that we also help ourselves.

If being part of an author’s corner were only about begging people to buy our books it might seem empty. But talking to people about a writing journey they might want to take, or about how writing expands our lives, and getting out of our comfort zone is where the growth is, it becomes a joy.

When we talk to someone that has done what we want to do it expands our horizons, if they can do it, why can’t we? There are so many resources for us to learn to do whatever we want to do. How long will it take to learn what we want to learn? That will depend on how much time and effort we put into it. Will it make us rich and famous? Probably not, but that isn’t where the joy is. If our goal is to be rich and famous that might be a hollow victory, but if our goal is to do what is in us to do and somehow through luck and serendipity, hard work and perseverance we get rich and famous, then that is just a fact of life and the fruit of our labor.

Is there something we want to do we haven’t attempted yet? What are we waiting for?

Look. You can’t plan out your life. What you have to do is first discover your passion – what you really care about. Barack Obama

If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen for you. To you and because of you. Alan Armstrong

If you feel like there’s something out there that you’re supposed to be doing, if you have a passion for it, then stop wishing and just do it. Wanda Sykes

Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to everyone that reads my books, and a special thank you to those that leave a review on Goodreads or Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it. Judy Blume

The spring flowers are starting to bloom and the days are warm enough for shorts. We are talking about a trip across Canada. Our son would like to rent a Tesla. We can dream of more places to go than we have time or money to travel. What if life wouldn’t be better if we didn’t have money or time constraints?

In art, we are told to use a limited palette, yet if people are like me they have tubes and tubes of paint colors and sets and sets of gel pens and markers. I bought the gel pen sets for my illustrated journals. I should have one illustrated journal but I go between separating my journals and jumbling everything together in one.

Can’t a journal document my days and live in the same book as the journal exploring art concepts, and exploring personal growth? They could, but I tend to have different journals for different things.

Does it matter how we document our life? I am sure some people have better practices than others, but the best one for us is the one we will do. Using expensive materials makes us think what we put on that canvas or paper has to be worth it. We can buy the materials to create an illustrated journal for a reasonable cost and experiment on the page with doodling, line drawings, pattern making, coloring, painting, and we may find when we put our thoughts on the page we have more understanding about what we think, what we want, and how we would like the rest of our life to unfold.

Drama in our lives can be a form of addiction, we don’t like it, but somehow all of our conversations end up in some form of drama. A journal might be a place to work out some of the angst in our lives. It also might be a place to set goals we aren’t willing to say out loud. We need to be okay with who we are, what we think, and what we want.

We can’t always articulate in words but we can pour our frustrations out on a page. Some people might even find it helpful to pour their frustrations out on a page and then destroy the page as a symbol of removing that angst from their life. Destroying the page is a symbol of forgiving themselves or someone else and going forward without that burden.

Often we imagine that we will work hard… arrive at some distant goal, and then we will be happy. This is a delusion. Happiness is the result of a life lived with purpose. Happiness is not an objective. It is the movement of life itself, a process, an activity. Ethan Hawke

Accepting ourselves how we are is not the same thing as saying we can never be more than we are at this moment. But, what do we think would make us better than we are? If we were richer, more attractive, younger, thinner, or is it if we are kinder, more generous, encouraging others, and finding a purpose greater than ourselves that helps someone?

What if only focusing on ourselves is part of the problem and becoming focused on others is where we grow? It might be why parenting is such a maturing experience. Life becomes all about the family, but families grow up and we need to let them live their own lives and make their own decisions and mistakes. What do we do with all that energy that used to go into our family?

Trying to create a superficially beautiful journal might not be as therapeutic as putting all of the messiness of our lives on a page. Only by trial and error will we find a style of journaling that suits us. We can use a limited palette on some pages and a wild abundance of color on others. No one is going to judge our journal unless we put it out to be judged. What is this excessive need for other people’s approval that seems to be part of our culture these days? If we are going to live our best lives, we can’t always be looking for approval.

Do we worry too much if something will be good enough, and if it isn’t perfect, or what others will think of it? We need to get out of our comfort zone to grow and develop ourselves, and we won’t know what we can do until we do it.

It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any. Hugh Laurie

The important thing is: to be ready at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you could become. Charles Dickens

The thing I really want to emphasize is… when you have a dream, it doesn’t often come at you screaming in your face. Sometimes a dream almost whispers… it never shouts… So you have to, every day of your lives, be ready to hear what whispers in your ear. Steven Spielberg

Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to everyone that reads my books, and a special thank you to those that leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. Winston Churchill

It’s been an exciting week, our grandson turns one, and I was invited to give a presentation to a group that helps people heal after brain injury. The person that invited me is the leader of the Mississauga Writers Group, and I wondered what I could offer.

It came to me in an epiphany that an Illustrated Journal might be helpful. Writing helps us and art helps us so putting the two together into an Illustrated Journal might help as it documents our lives and is something we can hold in our hands. As we look over the pages we remember our days. It is a way to celebrate the everydayness of our lives, and our days are our lives. When we enjoy and celebrate our days, we enjoy and celebrate our lives.

They loved the idea and we are getting our proposals for courses out today. As they say, we need to strike while the iron is hot. The longer we take to implement an idea or opportunity that comes our way the more chance it will get away from us. We will begin to think it’s not such a good idea, why bother, they won’t be interested anyway, and we are putting all that work into it for what? It is easy to talk ourselves out of doing things.

If you’re not making someone else’s life better, you’re living yours wrong. Kushandwi Zoom

The other thing they are interested in is my involvement with public speaking through Toastmasters. The more we learn the more we can help others learn. Serendipity works in our lives, we might not be looking for an opportunity but it jumps into our lives and it is up to us to take advantage of it and see where it can go. How many people can we help if we do what it seems we are called to do?

It seems to me the people who lead rewarding lives are giving to the communities they are part of. One of my first bosses took me under her wing, she gave me “The Edible Woman” by Margaret Atwood to read, and I read it. She introduced me to community theatre. I think of her fondly especially now that I have time to be involved in community activities. She was an example of a woman living a well-rounded life, working, her daughter was grown, and she was involved in the community.

We have one life to live and we need to take the opportunities when they come, but we also have to know what is most important in our lives. If we get too busy outside the family, the family may suffer, but if we do too little, we may suffer by not being all we can be. Is there something we would like to do, that if we don’t do it might not get done?

It is never too late to be who you might have been. George Elliot

Create an environment where people can take risks. If everything has to be brilliant from the word go, you’re never gonna get off the ground. Paul Hewson, aka, Bono

Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. John Wesley

Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some more and have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, or see archives and categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you to those that leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon Link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.