Painting for the Not faint of heart

Last week, I traded dollars for scholarly, incredible art , for practical dollars... for making a living art...And, here's the best part. There's not a sad bone in my body about it.! In fact it just possibly makes me happier than having a masterpiece on my livingroom wall. I say this for a couple of reasons.

The first reason being that as a single woman, who needs more than ever to succeed in her business, it is smart business.
The second reason is oddly more important in some ways...it is that I realize now how much beauty has meant to me these past few years as i decided to end my marriage. Beauty saved me..BEAUTY SAVED ME. It did and it will always. Beauty is faithful it would seem to those who see it in all of its' incarnations, grand and simple.

When my ex's infidelities cut me to the bone, I created a garden to heal myself in. It truly was a labor of love and survival.
It is and was, a place where I could trust. i trusted that if I nurtured and weeded, my blooms would thrive and spread happiness...

With each new plant and bloom, my heart grew back together, stronger. With each back-breaking shovel full of dirt dug for my pond, with each 300lb stone set, i knew it was worth living, no matter how wounded I felt. When that first stream of water came over the waterfall, I felt freed of the dirt he brought to my bed. I felt the courage to tell him to leave. It didn't matter to me that I might lose the house and the garden...I knew I could create that again anywhere...

So, now to the painting of the shop...It will heal me further, not in regards to the death of my marriage. That is finally healed. No, this time, the painting, the creation of a beautiful space is about signalling to myself that beauty still maters.

It is now a symbol of wanting to live happy again...like my newly painted bedroom, it will make me smile and maybe even laugh each time I enter. It is a gift to my community, to my customers, my employees and to myself. The rest of them, they will see beauty in color and ight...I will see beauty in that too, but most of all, I will see beauty in the fact that it is a symbol of wanting to live full-force again...of wanting what we all want, but i didn't dare to think I deserved, a shared life, for however long a period of time i am lucky enough to be given, i want to share my life with someone who intuits the importance of beauty, of it's ability to heal, to give joy, to laugh.

So, great art is after all, in the eye of the beholder... I hope those who behold the clean beautiful bright shop at its completion, understand.
Slante