It’s hard to imagine I’ll be touching down in London a week today. While I run around soaking up the last days in Kyoto, I can’t helping thinking of some of the things I am looking forward to when I get back (in no particular order):
do what you love Page 59 of 94
Sand dunes in Japan?
How I strategise these days
Next to the river,
on a bench,
staring up at the sky,
eagles wheeling overhead,
gentle breeze blowing
and the lazy sound of a saxophone drifting past.
This is where I hold my strategy meetings these days.
Who says you need to be in an office?
It’s not where you are that counts, it’s what you are thinking…
A life-threatening allergy forced me to do what I love – Carrie Schmitt’s story
Today’s shared story comes from Carrie Schmitt in Seattle, USA, who shares how a life-threatening allergy forced her to do what she loves.
I didn’t do what I loved until I was forced. It was a matter of survival, at least emotionally. In 2009, I developed a life-threatening allergy to heat. It. Was. Devastating. I couldn’t leave my home for 4 months because of the extreme heat and humidity in Ohio.
Gone were spending leisurely days at the pool with my children or tinkering in my beloved garden, which gave me a joy so pure and connected to the rythmn of life that I didn’t know how I could survive without it.
Also, gone were the mundane errands, such as shopping and carpooling. Suddenly, for the first time since college, I had time for myself. I was often left home alone while my husband and kids went about their summer lives.
Thinking that my life was over (at least an outdoor, physically active life that I loved) is what finally pushed me to pursue a dream I had long ignored — to become an artist. I distinctly remembered thinking to myself, “Well, if my life is over, I might as well do what I want and paint.”
I picked up a paintbrush, experimented and began taking online art classes. Slowly, I felt alive and excited again. I had a reason to wake up early in the morning — to paint flowers instead of plant them.
This act of desperation—forcing myself to do what I love and have always loved which is to create—was the first of many gifts that my dreadful heat allergy has given me. Strangely, my dis-ease realigned my life in ways that made my dreams start coming true.
Today, my family and I reside in a more temperate climate in our farmhouse on a wet and wild mountain in Washington — another long ago abandoned childhood dream come true for me thanks to my heat allergy.
I have my own detached studio at our home and am an artist who recently launched my first professional website, which became a transformative moment for me when I realized that I was actually working and living as an artist!
I’ve noticed throughout my life that when you don’t follow your authentic path and do what you love, the universe gives you signs. Signs I ignored for so long that the universe finally screamed at me to sit down and paint.
I’m in a state of bliss because I finally listened. My wish for you is that you find the strength to listen to your soul’s deepest whispers too and don’t wait until you think your life is over to follow your dreams.
[Images courtesy of Carrie Schmitt. Find out more about Carrie on her website or connect on Facebook and Pinterest]
***
See here for more inspiring *shared stories or to submit your own!
Schedule, what schedule?
Nijo Castle – an inspiring way to start the day
Here in Japan I don’t really have a schedule. The days are wide open, and each morning I sit down and work out how to spend the precious hours of the day ahead. Now we are more than half way through our adventure this time is feeling even more precious, and more than ever I am conscious about the choices I am making about how I spend my time.
The other day I had a Skype call scheduled for 11am and back at home I would normally have spent the hours before it catching up on emails etc. But instead we spent an impromptu hour after breakfast exploring a 500-year old castle – and guess what? I came back in time for the Skype call, very awake and already inspired before our conversation had even begun.
As a meticulous planner in the past, I am slowly trying to let go of the reins a little… not completely but enough to let my instinct guide my day, and reveal new ways of travelling through it…
How do you spend your time these days?
How organised are you?
Arriving in Tokyo back in March without much of a plan
I like to think of myself as a very organised person. I love lists, notebooks, getting things in order. But that is only one part of my personality. Another part – the bohemian wandering part – has no interest whatsoever in being organised. And that is probably how I came to write in my journal, whilst sat on a plane to Japan at the beginning of this six month trip, that “I have never felt quite so unprepared for a trip in my life as I do for this one.”
The long cycle
Cycling is a brilliant way to travel – you see so much more than when you are in a car. It’s like you are IN the scenery. We had a brilliant time cycling 70km across seven huge bridges over the Seto Inland Sea, breathing in fresh salty air as we pedalled high above the sparkling seas.
Naughty, naughty
I led him astray.
He was supposed to be at school, learning some more grammar and having a kanji test.
But I pursuaded my man to skyve off for the day and we escaped to the beach.
Of course I wouldn’t generally advocate truancy… but it was all the more deliciously fun because we shouldn’t have been there!
My kind of Monday…
I live to make people smile with my art – Elizabeth Gonzalez shares her story
Today’s shared story comes from Elizabeth Gonzalez, from Puerto Rico.
After many years struggling about what was the right thing to do instead of asking what I would love to do, I finally found myself at peace. Now I love what I do and I do what I love. Not many years ago I realized I am an artist “deep in soul” and a creative business was the right path.
In school I was in science and math curriculums instead of art because of my grades. I thought Art was not meant for me and it was not a surprise that I earned an Industrial Engineering degree. I was hired for a regular job 6 months before graduation day. However, very soon after starting I noticed I was bored. This happened in any job I had no matter whether my work was good. Looking for professional development, I did a Master’s degree in Engineering Management and worked as a university professor.
I was already making art as a hobby and my teaching experience was good. After a few years trying to make the best of my experience as professor and part time artist I realized that what I loved about my job was more than teaching the course itself. I used every opportunity to inspire my students to do what they love, to be true to themselves, to find their passion, to be honest, to be good citizens, good parents, etc. I adapted my own style in management classes and I added five readings about life and business. By that time I was already selling my ceramic to stores.
In 2002, when I was still working as a professor, AVON Puerto Rico found my work and was interested in reproducing it. This was a dream come true. AVON chose two designs and reproduced them in resin. By my birthday they had the prototype. I was mesmerized. They sold more that they planned and later they bought nine more designs. When my mom saw my design in the front cover of the AVON catalog she said, “this is what you should do”. By that time the word ‘licensing’ was unknown for me and I was already in my forties.
In 2007, the same day the School of Management offered me a long time contract, I quit. I was ready to find my true north, my true path. The story is longer and later I had to go back to a regular job but I was always doing both things at the same time – creating ceramics and selling them to stores. This was not easy. The job contract ended and I was all by myself with my creative business.
In 2008, after a very sad experience with my mom’s death I started drawing and painting classes. I found two books about mixed media that changed my life as an artist and creative entrepreneur. It was love at first sight.
Today, I spend most of my time creating art and looking for venues to grow my earning as an artist. Reproducing, manufacturing, licensing, blogging, online teaching and other creative ventures make my life busy and enjoyable. I love creating mixed media art using collage and making journals with papers I create. This is the way I express my feelings, my desires and my purpose in life. I love and I live to make people smile with my art.
Now as a young grandma, I treasure each moment and live with passion. This is the life I’ve always imagined – doing what I love, loving what I do, embracing life as it comes day by day and inspiring others to “enjoy the ride through this amazing life”.
[Images courtesy of Elizabeth Gonzalez.]
Daisen National Park
More glimpses from the road around Japan…
I travelled to many parts of Japan but this was my first time in Daisen National Park. They call the main mountain ‘Daisen’ the ‘mini Mount Fuji’ and you can see why from its conical shape. We wanted to get away from the hot hot city for a couple of days and this was the perfect place. In the winter it is a popular ski resort but in the summer, away from the roads, it is a hiker’s paradise.