My cyber friend Cheryl has gifted me with The Sunshine Award – don’t you just love the name??? I really do feel that I’ve been full of light lately. I’ve realized that those times when I felt less than terrible were because my thoughts, my actions, my every day life was completely out of alignment with my soul and what I knew to be the best path for me. I was lost.
As a working, married woman, I was happy in general and felt a sense of purpose. I was also purposeful as a new mother, content in my chosen path, but there was a new hecticness to life that wasn’t there before. It was almost impossible for me to take care of two people at the same time… and so I cared for my daughter and let myself forget about me.
I remember clearly that when my daughter was 5 months old and I had a few days away from her, I pretty much collapsed. After much back and forth with myself about whether to go at all, I went to Maui with Mr. B on a sales reward trip, which was full of meeting coworkers at various social events and not at all relaxing. I’d spent about 5 weeks pumping breast milk like crazy, filling the freezer with enough ounces to last my daughter 7 days. I was exhausted from round-the-clock care of her, a whirlwind agenda full of playgroups and new friends and Gymboree and library story time (all in an effort to be around other adults and not go crazy), and I got sick. (We saw lots of doctors in Hawaii!) Having finally had a day to sleep and rest toward the end of the trip, I cried on the way home that I wasn’t ready to resume care of this little being because I only just then started tuning back in to myself and what I was going through as a new mother. I felt guilty about that too, if you can imagine that!
Why tell you all this? To show you how I have come such a long way from being that confused and frantic young mom. I’ve been enjoying my art time so much, the past month especially, because we are finally in a routine where my sweet girl is at preschool for 6 hours each weekday. I have ample time to fill my own well with rest, projects that feed my creativity, and much-needed quiet time.
When Cheryl told me that she’d nominated me for the Sunshine Award, I was shocked and honored, but also there was this something inside me that leapt up shouting, “YES!!! You are filled with sunshine these days because you are on the right path.” Just like our bodies send us signals/symptoms when we are on the wrong path, they can also acknowledge that we have found our greater alignment and give us a cosmic High Five.
The Sunshine Award is a flower for “bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere.” I would not be able to inspire if I were not genuinely feeling so light and content, and so I this award helps me acknowledge and celebrate that as well. So thank you, Cheryl, for recognizing that spark within me and for sending a bit of sunshine my way.
Here are the “rules” attached to the lovely reward:
- Include the award logo in a post or on your blog.
- Link to the person who nominated you.
- Answer 10 questions about yourself and write 10 more for your nominees to answer.
- Nominate 10 bloggers to receive the award. Link your nominees to the post and comment on their blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.
Questions for me to answer:
1. Who is your favorite author or all time? I have to say that I don’t really know. I looked at my list of everything I’ve read and found it tough to come up with one name. Maybe I can just tell you that I’m enjoying Claire Messud lately because of her use of imagery and the depth of her characters.
2. If you made the effort would it be for sunrise or sunset? I love seeing the colors in sunsets, especially over water!
3. The thing that makes me most happy is… a cup of coffee upon waking.
4. One word that discribes you best…must be positive. Passionate.
5. Honey or sugar? Sugar please.
6. Notebook or wordpress? WordPress because I can type faster to keep up with my thoughts.
7. Hard copy or Kindle? I hope I never ever own a Kindle. I love holding books in my hands. I even print out long blog posts to read in bed.
8. Make-up or a la natural? A bit of both. Without any makeup, I look like a teenager, so I at least wear eye liner and mascara and lipstick when I remember.
9. Neat freak or I can live with it? Neat freak to the extreme. A calm environment helps me have a calm mind.
10. Photobooks or framed photos? Both. I’m behind in my book-making right now and I rarely print out photos, but I do like having them to look at.
My nominees: It was tough to stick to just 10. I’d definitely put Cheryl in my list if she hadn’t already chosen me! I could tell you many lovely traits of all these people, but then I would never hit Publish. I assure you, they are amazing, each in her own way.
- Andria at Drawing Near
- Deborah at Learning As I Go
- Kelly at Minding My Nest
- Kathy Anne at Wildflower Kath
- Janet at Tattered ‘n Worn
- Suzanne at suzanne-mcrae.com
- Sherri at Softly Piqued Lens
- Stacie at stacie jewelry
- Jennifer at Ripplespeak
- Amy at Tao Te Ching Daily
Questions for them to answer (and I must tell you all that I’d love to hear any of your answers to these, even if you are not one of the nominees. Please answer in the comments if you feel compelled.)
- If you could paint a picture of any scenery you’ve seen before, what would you paint?
- If you could choose to stay a certain age forever, what age would it be?
- What chore do you absolutely hate doing?
- What is your favorite form of exercise?
- What sound do you love?
- If you could choose anyone, who would you pick as your mentor?
- Have you ever had something happen to you that you thought was bad but it turned out to be for the best?
- What is something you learned in the last week?
- The best part of waking up is?
- What do you miss most about being a kid?
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Dividers help to section off groups of supplies.
And it totally works! I wanted a butterfly for something I was working on and knew exactly where to find all things butterfly. Cool, eh? The ScrapRack website has loads of tutorials too. It has been so nice to have everything in one place.
And finally, I have often-used paints on their own shelf close by. (Yes, sorted by the rainbow spectrum.)
In case you are wondering, I do the same in my closet. What can I say?
