Life After Life.

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. -Lao Tzu

 

Thoughts.

This week was the first week I could walk without pain. The weather here has been outstandingly beautiful. Sunny, cloudless skies, warm but not sultry, slightly breezy and refreshing. I started painting portraits again this week. All the ideas and creative pressure has been building up in me for weeks, and this week I finally set aside the time to see where all those ideas would go. I started and finished three separate 8 x 8 inch portraits, more for the 100 Reflection series. It felt like a release seeing those ideas take form. I felt enthusiastic throughout the week, and even painted in the middle of the night….just like I used to so many years ago.

A part of me felt alive and awake in a way that it hasn’t been for a long time.

Everyday I took a few hours and just walked around town. It’s funny, I’ve walked a lot in my lifetime, for events and for fun. Going for a walk this week felt different, that great kind of different. The sun beating down, a warm breeze brushing across my skin, tickling my hair. It was as though I had never walked before, and felt everything for the first time.

I thought about how we take even something simple, like walking, for granted. I haven’t been able to do much moving over the last two weeks because of pain and discomfort from the surgery. Walking this week made me reflect on just how fun, simple and invigorating walking is. We have these legs and sometimes we look for ways to not even use them, how crazy is that? People park close to buildings because they don’t want to walk. They drive short distances because they don’t want to walk. They ask other people to get things for them because they don’t want to get up and walk to do it.

So crazy. Walking gives you time to reflect, to relax, to see everything slowly, as it comes. Rediscovering this about walking and movement is so positive. My heart feels lifted and my body feels great.

Graduation is over. College is finished. Taking my time to rediscover simple things that make life beautiful, celebrating the positive, reflecting on the hardness of other things, and pushing myself to be open to whatever comes next.

Life is beautiful, get out and discover it!