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What Peak do you want to climb? Where do you want to be in life? Great visions can propel us to amazing heights and places. Often as we set out on these journeys our vision becomes clouded.  Life’s Weather!  This might be a health issue, lack of personal beliefs, wrong support system, misaligned belief system, not wanting to ask for or see the need for help, time and efforts don’t correlate, bad planning, longevity, just to name a few.  Overcoming these weather events often seems to be to difficult to face.

How do you chose to face them. If you do not continue; what Regrets will you have. Being an artist, I think there is great and immense value to any vision that can fulfill your life and allow you to move on to the  next, and the next.

I do not think there is an end, rather a journey with destinations. Each piece of art of mine is like that. I think my work tells and unending story, appropriately abandoned for another to finish.  There are a lot of pieces I have and still struggle with. There are a lot I still want to create. I have to keep my thoughts, my heart, my focus on the visions I have. I also have to learn when to “Appropriately Abandon” each piece. My life is a reflection of this and my art is a reflection of my life.

Live and feel that vision, make it your reality.

When I was a young boy, 5 or 6, my father gave me a cape for a present. I knew instantly that I could fly! I ran out back to show my older brothers. They didn’t seem impressed, probably just jealous. I climbed the fence to show my neighbor. He to seemed skeptical :(. So I thought I would just prove to all “I Could Fly”! I would just do a short flight at first, as I was new to flying. I chose to fly across the backyard to the other fence.

I leaped, and instantly flew! Making it a good 6 inches, from the top of the fence. to the top of a metal garden post! Landing directly on my butt. Lying on the ground screaming, squirming, my father came running out to see what happened. I had impaled the post in the back of my leg at my bottom. Quite a cut! My brothers were asked why they didn’t help. They thought I was just laughing.

My parents rushed me to the Emergency Hospital, where I received over 50 stitches. I was told just a minute fraction off from lancing an artery. There was some time after before I was able to fly again. I was greatly concerned that my father had given me a bad cape. I’m sure this wasn’t intentional. To this day I do still tease him about being the type of father that would give his young boy a bad cape; “What type of Father would ever do this?”

Since this day, and really whenever I chose to look, I have many magic capes to help me along, help me fly. I may not get them all from my father, but I do credit him for enabling me, empowering me to see and use them!

Where do you find yours?

As the year comes to an end, many of us review our past and begin to look seriously at our future! Did this year meet “My Expectations”? Were they good ones, “Just more of the same” Am I line with my goals? Did the same sh@*$  happen? Is there something new? Exciting? A reason to move on? What do you have? What do you want?

Begin by “Centering” yourself, by giving thanks to all you have. Appreciate all that is and has been given to you. Look at the Abundance of your life, the loves, and lives that share yours! This sense of “Gratitude will help you in receiving more, for “As a Man Thinketh…!” Believe in who you truly are!

The best you can do to both see, and receive in your life is to begin by being thankful. I believe you will be greatly blessed by just giving thanks for all you have, each day, each hour, each minute… I think you may be quite surprised at your blessings you begin to see and feel! This inventory is well worth the effort and quite necessary in moving on!

May you be blessed with all the Joys this season offers!

 

 

 

As I mentioned before, I had lost the sense of feeling for so much. There were things I previously enjoyed with great passion: My Art work, my horses, my grand children, nature etc.

Art is something I have participated in at different levels all of my life.  I had thousands of images in my head that I wanted to draw in the future.  After the accident the 1000’s of images in my head that I was to paint, draw, create were now gone! Had they been knocked out of my head with all consciousness too?

My horses, even though at first I physically couldn’t ride, I knew I wanted to. I just didn’t feel any great desire, even to be with my horses. Before we had shared so much. I had daily and seasonal goals to complete with each horse.

The hardest was with my wife and family. I loved my wife, I loved my grand children. I loved my kids. I knew this! I just couldn’t feel any of it. I felt nothing….

I knew this would be essential for my existence! I needed to feel. I needed to touch something with my heart! I needed to feel it touch me back.

One day, I was with a friend trying to explain this to her, I saw something, a reaction , kind of a sign that I was important, that I mattered. She was genuinely struct by what I was saying. I could honestly say this was the first intense feeling I had since returning home.  I was asked what I thought my future would be like. I knew it had to be different from that day. I had to make a choice. I decided that I could only continue to exist if things changed…If I changed…If I felt… This had to be my choice, my direction. I couldn’t just wait for these feelings to return, maybe they would maybe they wouldn’t. So, I decided I would find them…but  where? How?

I would began telling myself how much I loved my wife (and of course her! :)), I would find things to passionately do and ways to be with her. I watched her treat my grandchildren with such a tremendous love and I tried to feel this as well. I would watch another friend as she helped me with my animals, she would hug, kiss them… I did the same. I continued this with such earnest from the inside. I did this weekly, daily, hourly and every waking moment. I could at this point make no other choice for me!

Oh my gosh!  This seemed to be working, I was gaining, sorry FEELING, that love again for my wife, for my Children and Grand Children.  I wanted to ride again! I wanted to draw. I finished a piece of art that I had been working on for over 2 years. I saw a small child and Finally Felt Inside “I have to paint her”. This Feeling to me is REAL, and Greater than the painting will ever be! I can make this my reality! I can make this my Life!

Like the Grinch “My heart Grew 10 times that day!” and honestly continues to do so!!

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I am writing this post to share with you some things that I believe we all can “Overcome“. I do believe there is little to nothing we cannot overcome. I see endless possibilities of actions, beliefs and behaviors to provide strength, hope and success in doing so!

A couple of years ago I was in a terrible accident. Knocked out and off my horse. which left me 3 days in an induced coma, then another month in the hospital. A very dear friend who was with me saw my horse trip and me fall. I believe my horse tripped and we knocked heads (I do not just fall off my horses :).

I was in 2 different hospitals, told that they expected (if I lived) to be in for 6 to 8 months. Remembering very little to nothing at all. I guess we knocked heads pretty good! I got out in the next month, then outpatient therapies for the next few months, ongoing followup appointments with doctors. Ha! I really enjoyed the next bit of time where I continuously found  out what I could no longer do!

It has definitely been a journey, I could have chosen any moment to give up. I felt nothing, no passion, saw no beauty, felt I had nothing anymore to keep me going! All things I had to find again if I wanted to continue in this life!

I will go over some of the things I faced later but for this blog I will begin to tell about my journey out and what I believed and did to begin to lift myself up.

The first of any significance to me was to look at what and whom I wanted to be and experience with my life and my future. When asked the questions of how do I see my future, I realized it was totally different from where I was prior to the incident. I wasn’t sure how or why, it just felt different, my path had veered a little and I was not going to be there to see or experience it in anyway.

I used to be a very passionate person, not giddy, nor visually or expressively always excited, but I had done all things in my life with “Passion” with energy, with commitment,  with the greatest gratitude to be there! So… I chose to find this again

I decided to live each day with a “Word of the Day” to drive me to see, reach, feel something, anything! I chose the word “Passion”. I would find one thing, no matter how big or small I could or would do with Passion!

The first thing I did was just to remind myself each morning “I am doing this! What am I finding?” It seemed very little at first, progressively getting to be more. I was at most…”a Sleeping Bear”

Next Blog “What are some of these thing? How do I Keep awakening this Sleeping Bear?”

(Image of a Bear I created out of clay while in the Hospital!)

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