I can’t believe it was one year ago today I STARTED this blog.  One year full of STARTS and screeching haults stops.  One year of  full of STARTING new projects, trying new ways of doing things, and STARTING to discover my writing voice.  One full year of learning learning learning!  How to take photos, crop photos, size photos, and print artwork as well as spread my technology wings in photoshop (which I’m still not very good at).

Since STARTING this blog I have also learned to navigate my website, got a facebook page, sold my artwork, opened an Etsy store, and had my art published simply because I had taken an online e-course offered by Kelly Rae Roberts that encouraged me to do a little something every. single. day.

But most of all, I’ve made connections.  Connections with the most amazing and talented people I have n(ever) met through this crazy thing called the internet.  Connections that continue to encourage, uplift, and inspire me to keep on keepin on with even more STARTS.  As I said in my blog post one year ago today, STARTS are really just action for activity filled with immeasurable possibilities.  So here’s to hoping you have many STARTS this year.

Impossible or I’m possible, it all depends on how you see it.

This past weekend I witnessed bravery by a 9 year old little girl who was terrified at the realization that her fight with an escalator was leading her to stichville.  Yes stitches…only 6 of them…but stitches in her leg none the less.  I watched and noticed that this anxiety ridden 9 year old was filled with the anticipation that “stitches” meant “the most pain I’ve ever felt in my whole life”.

I realized she hadn’t yet learned the lessons that a life lived could teach her…namely that what she “thought” was going to happen had nothing to do with what was actually happening. She was being held by her dad, staring into his giant smile, and listening to the assurance of a stong fathers voice that all was OK.  That right there, in that mOMent, they were just sitting, watching tv, and cracking up at the ridiculous nic names (however true) the nurses were giving her younger chatty sister waiting for her turn on the attention cruise ship.  The nic name bestowed “talks too much long hair”.  Her Native American ancestors would be proud.

Have you ever noticed that while we can’t “give” to others what we do not “have”, we’ll often “do” for others what we won’t do for ourselves?  This is when I knew she had it in her…when she prOMised to be brave for her dad while getting stitches  if he prOMised to be brave for her and get his next chest x-ray.  A secret pact was born and bravery made an appearance from the depth of a scared 9 year old girl proving that she could do it for him.  Bringing out the parts of us that are burried deep below the surface are often coaxed out with encouragement from another and show us….that it was there all along, we just didn’t know it.

And together……they became brave.

If you think about it, the saying “we all start somewhere” happens a million times a day.  We START the day by opening our eyes (in my case puffy dark circled ones), we START the shower by turning it on, we START the coffee pot with the press of a button, we START the car, we stop at a red light and then we START to go again.  We START reading the paper, START our work day, START eating lunch, START cooking dinner, START homework, etc. etc.  STARTS are really just action for activity filled with immeasurable possibilities!  It is quite extraordinary that we have so many ordinary STARTS every. single. day.  Some STARTS are easy and routine,other STARTS get put off because they seem very very scary.  But, here’s the thing about STARTS……they lead us further down a path where we simply can decide to stop.  So here’s my START….welcome to Om2art, a place where you can grab yourself a cup of coffee, kick off your shoes, sit back and START reading bits and pieces of inspiration on creating an extraordinary life out of ordinary mOMents.  What can you start today that you’ve been putting off, knowing if it the road gets too scary….you simply have the choice to stop.