Feeling Relieved

Today I felt a great sense of relief and peace...

in knowing how much God has worked in my life this past month.

If you didn't know, you will now. I am on week 3 of quitting smoking. After falling off the wagon many times in the last several years, this time I feel great about it! No credit to me except to follow what has been asked of me.

I went for what I call a jogging walk (jog a block, walk a block, repeat). I have always wanted to be a jogger, but knew very early on, even before smoking, that it was going to be very hard. If not unobtainable...for private reasons (don't want to give the impression I'm setting out blame).

I don't want my poor choice to hinder me from jogging. When trying in the past it has hurt in my side, sharp pains, hard to breathe, and what feels like no oxygen getting to my entire body. I know you have to work up the endurance, but it never felt "right".

YET, this time, no sharp pains, and very little effort to catch my breath! This made me think. No IBS symptoms, I can eat dairy again...and green peppers, and I'm just more at peace. I feel great (although I have taken up munching A LOT - more than usual. :/ ). But I rather gain a few pounds than continue smoking.

I feel refreshed. I feel ready to focus. On me. As an artist, for me this can sometimes be difficult. I, like many other human beings, have deep down wounds, emotions, habits, and those "mysterious" stereotype, noir thoughts "artists" have. I have a bubble around me that I feel sometimes gets in the way of my life, especially relationally. To feel at peace and refreshed opens up trust and confidence.

These "deep" things have been the foundation of the work I create. I try to portray emotion through my paint. Though the mission of my work is to bring peace, hope, love, and joy, it is my hope this renewed focus and freshness will brighten the work I create even more.

It has also made me more confident to make changes and letting things go. 

In my business I put a lot of time into the products I create, and they are usually always getting better, heh, at least I like to think so. One of my ideas was the sticker tins. I loved the idea of recycling altoid tins and having this solid carrying case for little girls to collect stickers in.

Problem: I have ran out of time to spray paint and assemble them.

Solution: Offering the stickers in plastic packages and making little tins that I don't need to spray paint and offer...not just for stickers...but separately.

I hope to have them up by the end of the week. Case in point - the sticker tins were a great idea in my opinion, but I had to let them go and find a different route. It's not as interesting to me, or efficient for the customer, but better for my business. Now I can give each product an equal amount of my time.