Consumed and Overwhelmed

I finished out the week by calling on businesses, meeting the owners and managers and informing them of the upcoming Significance event. I was pleasantly surprised that although there is a high amount of stress out there, and although the economy has dramatically affected so many businesses, there is still a great proactive attitude of resilience and servitude.

They all recognized that our topic will be very impacting on the guests that attend. We are teaching some valuable tips on stress management, longevity, and life balance skills for home and work. Most people I met said, “This is sooo needed!” and then proceeded to ask how they can be involved.

The only objections I had were a few that were so consumed and overwhelmed that they were not able to even think of taking the time to learn how to handle being consumed and overwhelmed.

And its okay. I have been there too.

Proactive to change

I have discovered the same results in my world of coaching. For someone to be a coaching client, they have to be at a point where they take responsibility for their life so far, and say, “If I want change, it is UP to me. Now what can I do to move forward?” Then take proactive, risky, and sometimes uncomfortable steps forward to change.

It is the same with business. During the great depression, many companies downsized, cut their hours and recoiled in response to the circumstances around them.

But there were a few others that decided this is a great time to advertise MORE, and invest in expansion, and GROW. They refused to let the surrounding circumstances dictate their outcome. They are the ones that are still around today. Here is a great  article to explain more.

So I am hoping that we will be able to help grow the businesses that are proactively participating for visibility and connections. I am hoping our teaching we will be able to empower our guests to be more proactive with the stress and challenges in their life at home and work.

And I am hoping to build some great connections myself, with the wonderful new friends I am making.

It’s going to be a great night!

I have been investigating different avenues to selling my artwork, what will and will not work in this economy. I know there is an audience out there of people who are inspired by florals and butterflies, and are open to investing in them, or even blessing another person with the inspiration. One thing I learned from my 3+ years of speaking, was that we are living in a hurting world and we all need inspiration and HOPE.  If my art could make a difference, even the smallest amount in someone’s life, then it is all worth it.

I find so much inspiration in these images that I have them all around my home. They are like babies to me, and it is hard for me to let them go. Once I give them up to the gallery, then they are in her hands and I am okay with it.

But the Broken butterflies, I have been saving. I have been saving them for a show, which may be in the works this year.

maybe.

I talked to some others in the gallery industry that encouraged me to go ahead and offer them.  I will not be homeschooling this year, freeing up my time to be more prolific with art and business. So why not try to sell them, offfer them out to anyone who may be interested? I can always paint more, and should be, as a prolific artist.

Can you tell that I love the word “prolific“. I think because it is a goal of mine that I have not yet achieved.

I paint at home when I am feeling inspired and focused, which is infrequent as I do laundry, plan meals, drive boys around, workout, and do laundry. Did I already stress the laundry?

I have designed several more butterflies, and a whole series of organic, abstract floral close-ups to come soon!

All this to announce that I now have a store on Etsy (see sidebar).

I also set up an Ebay store, with proceeds to go to the idic-15 charity of my choice. (Also in sidebar with Joshua’s cute picture). I’d love it if you go there and show them some love. When I searched for myself on Ebay, I was still hard to find..had to dig. So that is why we are trying Etsy again. I did have a good experience there over Christmas with the plates, and it was soo user friendly to set up. I am going to have more smaller paintings finished and up there next week, as well as some prints I still have around the house, saving up for some reason.

I love the idea of a new adventure, and like Tom Hanks said in Castaway, “you never know what the tide will bring in”.

Which, of course, for us, means God. The tide is just an ever-changing conduit.

like the wind.

or my emotions.

Thank you God for new opportunities and new seasons.

I took my 8 yr old, Bear, to the vet yesterday. We were just buying some meds for the dog. For most people, it would be a routine erand.

But we are not most people. Bear is my sensory kid. Over sensory, touchy,feely, everything. He wants to get into it all, but yet, sometimes overstimulating events, or things off routine, can really throw him, and prevent him, and the rest of us, from having a good day.

In the past, when we go to the vet, (which is a great clinic so there is always a wait), he has had to work on controlling the impulse to touch, pet, accost, every animal that walks in, whether they want it or not. This has resulted in him being snapped at a few times.

Anyone out there with kids dealing with SPD will know what a challenge it has been in the past, and how proud I was that he is growing up and learning to master his self-control. This time, he went and sat down on a bench, patiently watching the other pets, without touching  them. It really is pretty exciting to see all of the other animals, newborn puppies, old cats, even a goat, being treated at this vet.

I was telling him how proud I was and as we finished and were walking to the car, He said,” Mom, I sat on this wooden bench and now I have splinters in my butt.”

I really could not help but start to laugh a little. This infuriated him and he said, “I am not kidding! Check it out!” And proceeded to drop trou in the parking lot for me to check him out.

I was able to coax him into the car, with pants, where he sat halfway in the seat, wailing about how bad it hurt. As we drove home, Bear trying to sit sideways, and mommy laughing, like a terrible mommy, as I assured him that I would check out his butt when we got home and could asess the damage.

As soon as we pulled into the cul-de-sac, he saw some girls he likes to play with. He screamed, “Stop the car!” and wanted to get out right then and there to go play. I asked him, :What about your butt?”

He said, “ah, issokay now.” and ran off to play.  One minute he was soo emotional. The next minute he is fine.  What changed?

Reminded me of the old saying we used to hear about keeping a positive focus.

“A dog in the hunt don’t know he’s got fleas.”

I think we are entering a time in our economy where this is really helpful. We have a choice to make daily about the things we will choose to focus on, especially fed by the news channels we choose to turn on, the books or magazines we read, the people we even associate with. We can be totally consumed by this downward economy and the fallout we are witnessing. I truly am not making light of it. It is real.

Or we can decide we are going to develop a tenacity to run, with Dave Ramsey’s Gazelle Intensity, and get the job done, take care of our families, break out of the box, and focus on the positives in our life. We do live in the most free country in the world. If we need a gameplan, Dave does have an awesome program to teach us. and there are still new opportunities everyday.

We can wail and focus on our splinters, or the thorns in our side, or we can press on and find gratefulness, being willing to embrace some changes in our life.

After all that hullaballoo, we discovered later that the splinters were not even in his butt, but merely in his shorts.

So when he slowed down and came home, he took them off.

And had a good day after all.