Courage

Courage!

I am choosing as my theme word for 2016

You, guessed it,

COURAGE 

Courage to change,

Courage to improve.

Courage to feel.

Courage to hope.

Courage to let loose.

Courage to be happy.

2016 brought many changes.

Change is usually pretty uncomfortable, 

but often necessary.

I closed my gallery.

The two boys we had living with us are no longer here.

I am uneasy politically in my world.

I must loose weight.

I want to de-clutter and organize my home.

As I looked over my list of changes that had to be made,

I started getting ideas of how to do it.

I have made spread sheets,

joined a support group,

and laid out goals and deadlines for how I want to make changes.

It takes courage to change.

It takes courage to stick with the change process.

It takes courage to admit that maybe

 I wasn't right in past endeavors.  

 
I will need Courage in all the ways I'm changing in 2016.

I have taken a bit of a sabbatical for the last month as Jim and I took a trip to the unsunny sunshine state.  That didn't work out to well. 

After closing the gallery, I had lots of "stuff" to bring home and then I had to find new homes for it in my home.  That is mostly done now, and it is amazing, after I finished organizing the last section, I felt my spirit lift and I knew I was ready to paint again.  My studio was quite the mess, but once I got it under control, BOOM, the urge to paint returned. 

I laid out a year long plan to de-clutter my home.  I am going to tackle one room a month. January had me doing my bedroom.  I can now happily say I have been through every drawer, armoire, and closet and thrown out things I haven't used in years.  I love to go in there now.  

It is wonderful to have your spirit lightened.

I wanted to lose weight, (doesn't everyone), and I was invited into a weight loss challenge group.  I am now exercising every day, keeping a food journal, counting calories, paying more attention to what I eat and trying to enjoy it more.

And I've even eliminated about 90% of the sugar in my normal diet.

Thanks to the encouragement from my group, and the dedication I summoned for this change, I am seeing moderate success.

I love to study the scriptures, but sadly had gotten out of the habit, so that was also on my list of lifestyle changes I needed to make.

Spirituality is very important to me so I devised a plan

and so far, I'm sticking to it.

Change is hard.

But we can do HARD things.

On this blog in the near future I will be posting new artwork,

new free painting lesson videos, and motivation Monday topics, some related to painting, some just related to life.

Hopefully you'll join in and

 pass what you find interesting along.  

Thanks for stopping by today.

Don't forget I give away a free painting every month.

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