life of a georgia Artist

  Happy Sunday to you all. This week has been a roller coaster and I am learning to let go of the bar and put my hands up. I have surrendered too many things and feel exhilarated and depleted all at once. I feel rested and exhausted. I am happy and grieving. Life has a way of mixing all these things together and letting us sift out what we want. Life is challenging at best and brutal at its worst.  2019 tested us all, 2020 depressed us, and 2021, and 2022, have tried to revive us without life support paddles. We have collectively held our breath. We have stayed in and had food delivered to our homes. We have learned new trades, we have pivoted and we have stood up to only be knocked down again. Food is out of reach for so many, living in a home, is now a distant dream while apartments know you need them and they jack up the rent prices. Where do we go from here? I'd like to say I am ok, but I am not. I am disheartened. I am full of anxiety about even going out. My heart races when

  Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash the quiet sat on me like a heavy blanket. It felt as if it was trying to suffocate me. I needed a day, but this gray one was no good. It felt like it was pushing me down farther into a void. I was being sucked in. I woke with a start. I had terrible dreams. They started my day off by my waking and feeling depleted.  Sundays were days of rest, but I woke restless and anxious. I read until I finished a book, thinking it would lift my mood. The gray outside had other ideas. The sun never emerged. Apparently, it was banished for the day.  Candles lit, coffee drank, Bella Grace pulled out to enjoy this slow day. I decided I needed to bake some cookies. It worked. Cookies and milk can lift anyone's spirits, not permanently but for a while, the bleak day did not seem so bad.  It was not rainy or windy or anything other than gray. It was made worse by the barren trees this time of year outside my window. They seemed to beg for their leaves to come back,

  Tybee Island Ga This year is one year married, 8 years together, a life built on love, honestly and trips to Tybee Island. We met many moons ago, we got married Dec 2022, and each year to celebrate our anniversary, we take a Tybee island trip and enjoy each other's company. The waters were calm, and the winds were bitter, but we walked on the beach every day!  We may not see eye to eye on everything, but we do on most. This year, as with all new years, people ask what your word is for the coming year, what is your focus, and what do you want to manifest.  I say no to them all. Why are we stressing ourselves out to pinpoint what we want? I want happiness. I want joy. I want to hear laughter from my adult kids. I want peace for them both physically and emotionally. I only want them to be happy and experience more joy than pain. Both are a part of life. Do you set an intention and then manifest it into truth? Do you say no to it all? Or do you quietly go into the new year whispering