Fall has finally made its way over to my neck of the woods in Connecticut. The nights and mornings are way cooler and the daily fight on whether my children will wear a jacket because its literally 48 degrees outside is here right on schedule.
Best of all, I’ve been on a steady creative phase- adding gorgeous oil painting layers to my big kahuna canvases and ramping up the colorful ocean scenes I absolutely drool over. You can see the entire collection here.
Slow and steady has been my drumbeat this week.
I’ve been doing a large chunk of paint slapping every day and then taking a much-needed rest once my body decides it’s done for the day.And when I lay down my brush and head back upstairs to my kitchen, I feel deeply proud of how much I was able to accomplish—even though my body isn’t screaming at me and my legs aren’t sore from standing for hours.
I’m learning to slow things down. To actually be in the quiet moments instead of rushing through the boring bits to get to the good parts. Which, I think, is basically the entire premise of Click.
Huh. Didn’t think I would be referencing an Adam Sandler movie, but here we are.
Click follows Michael Newman, an overworked architect who gets a magical remote control that lets him fast-forward, rewind, and skip through parts of his life. As he starts skipping the moments he considers boring, he realizes too late that he’s missing the relationships and experiences that actually make life meaningful.
Even though I’m not a huge Adam Sandler stan, this movie made a great point.
Life isn’t about the grind or the hustle. And it isn’t just the vacations we take, the kitchen we want to renovate, or the dream job we want to get. Life is mostly the every day.
The getting up and brushing our teeth.The loud squeals of laughter from my kids waking up at the crack of dawn and playing with their toys. The emergency trips to urgent care to get stitches. The random pinched nerve in your neck that decides to act up when it rains. The little kisses we give. The big hugs we share. The ridiculous inside jokes and smiles that are contagious and suddenly make the world feel a little better. The two-hour painting sessions that get me one tiny step closer to the vision I have in my head. That IS life.
Sure, it sounds hokey and cliché. But damn, it’s true.
So what will you do with your one gorgeous and precious chance at life? Will you give yourself a few moments to slow down and actually take in the scenery? Will you let yourself enjoy the parts that aren’t particularly exciting? Will you embrace your true inner weird genius? The more I aim for this, the more full my life feels.
Introducing Ocean Spirit
A homage to the wild untamed spirits within us all
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