dear friends,
i have been busy tying up loose ends before i leave next week for artfest. i am going to artfest. my very first art retreat. i can hardly keep it together, just thinking about the magic of all of this and finding that even more than all of the art i get to do, i get to spend uninterrupted time with people i love (and don’t often get to spend time with)! time to explore new territory (i’ve never been to seattle!) and time to take creative risks and see what more is inside of me.
there is something about travel that makes me come alive, the planning, the dreaming, the living.
...and then there is the shopping.
girls, you know what i mean. one of the things this trip is showing me is how much i normally do without. living in hawaii, a stay at home, work at home mom really needs very little in the way of a wardrobe, especially a girl like me whose idea of “getting ready” is to run a comb through my hair and brush my teeth. yep, a pair of shorts, a tank top and some rubber slippers is pretty much all i need to make me happy as far as a wardrobe goes...and now, after trying on wintery clothes and buying a few outfits, i realize i’d forgotten how an outfit can make you feel, well, special. you know how that gorgeous black silk dress can all of a sudden make you feel womanly, elegant...it almost makes you feel new.
i am finding that over the years (especially the last 7 kiddie years) i’ve been putting so many little pleasures on the shelf for “later”, sort of living in a perpetual state of fasting...in a kind of survival mode where only the essentials get lived out (and sometimes not even those). oh, i’m not talking materialism mind you, or excesses even. i’m talking about putting the idea of living up on the top shelf for “later”. but when mind you, is “later”?
it’s been five years since i last traveled anywhere; tokyo, japan was my last trip and it has been at least a good ten years or so since i’ve been to the mainland U.S. i am so grateful for this trip, already. i am wanting to spend “special” time with my three boys becuase i am leaving soon...i am wanting to find that perfect shade of lipstick because it makes me feel pretty...i am enjoying dreaming about all of the things and people i will discover...i am talking with God about it all and smiling inside everyday, in spite of the chaos that swirls around me sometimes...and i wonder to myself, isn’t this how i could (and should) be living—mindfully, purposefully, joyfully—everyday of my life?
how about you? what lessons are you learning along the way?
