Anyway

I was writing to a friend about trying to do the right thing and being afraid to be judged. In situations where I feel called to not go along with a group but am afraid of the fallout and drama, I read these words from Mother Theresa. This has given me courage many times. I am not Catholic, and prefer words like the Creator, the Sacred, or The One Who Makes and Sustains Us (it's the poet in me!) but Mother Theresa's magnificent wisdom transcends sectarian differences. If you are reading, I hope that this applies somewhere where you need courage.

It's Between You and God by Mother Theresa

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight.
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, others may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
Why?
Because in the final analysis, all of this is between you and God….
It was never between you and them anyway.

Telling my Gremlins to SHUT UP!!!

Is anyone else experiencing creative blocks due to all the economic uncertainties? Arggg. Sometimes I feel like I'm living with a shadowy little gremlin who mutters every possible discouragement. 'The last thing that anyone will spend money on in this economy is art, especially not pottery and double especially not jewelry.' Shut up!

These whispery little gremlins are invariably echoing something we've heard recently. Naysayers and crazymakers we encounter take up residence in our minds. To make it all crazier, the news now sounds like Aunt Ethyl with her gloomy predictions about everything.

So today I am banishing the inner gremlins, the outer crazymakers, and CNBC.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.
Lanston Hughes

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
-Mark Twain

The hero is no braver than the ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer
- Ralph Waldo Emerson


In poorer times of my life, I've still afforded things of beauty, many of which I still have; still derive pleasure from. I'm going to make THOSE things, and have faith, and hope that you do, too. What do you do when you feel discouraged?