Namasté

Funny how I've managed to get everybody into using a blog. Seeing as last year about this time I thought they were the dumbest thing in the world. I'm addicted to it now. Oh well. Not a bad addiction to have. Keeps me in touch with my creative outlets. : ) Mom has finally been using hers. I updated her blog last weekend to be a little more to her liking. You can find her blog here:
http://paulinegarthwaite.blogspot.com

Fiona has been keeping hers up to date as well. Just not as fast as I would like her to. : P You can find hers here:
http://fionagarthwaite.blogspot.com

As you can see I've been updating mine as well. Trying to get it to look more streamlined. My obsessive nature I guess. Interesting how your motivations regarding art and creativity come out the most when life is at its most difficult. Luckily I have been able to hold onto some of that creativity when life balances out again, but it has been a little disconserting. But life lessons are. They happen when your ready for them, but are we ever truly ready for life lessons. I think thats why they become so profound. They play on our fears and anxieties, but that gives us the chance to grow and have a new understanding in life. I've been learning alot myself this past month. Overcome a lot of hurdles. A lot of challenges in my life have come from the fear I have associated with them. I recently went to a mediatation class the other night (by the way I completely recommend going to one of these). It was empowering to now that I could have that much control over how relaxed my body can be. The point with meditation is to clear your mind to only one thing or nothing and let your body release the stress and anxieties its been holding onto. It takes practice to try and completely clear your mind, (some would say it isn't that hard for me to do ; P) but I was able to clear my mind of most thoughts and actually have a relaxing meditation. I loved it. It gives you a very peaceful feeling and you find that your day isn't quite so hard to bare. Of course you'll get stressed again and have anxieties, but what the mediatation helps you to do is balance those feelings. Think of it like a pendulum. The further the pendulum swings, the farther it will swing back. If you can try to let yourself not get too excited or too sad then you'll find you feel much more balanced. Taking part in that class really opened my mind to new explorations of who I am and what I can accomplish. It really makes me feel even more gracious to have known the people I have through my life. They have been a huge inspiration to me and my growing as an individual. Everybody goes through hard times in life, but its what you learn and do with lessons that really matters. : )