Forward, without fear: 2017

Today I took our little dog for a walk.
It was cold and windy. I bundled up, she wore her scraggly fur as usual. 
Gusts blew the wisps of hair sticking out from under my hat. 

We took a familiar path down the sidewalk, of a cul de sac. Upon reaching the bend, my ears caught sound on the wind. A steady playing of rhythm instantly noticeable as wind chimes. Melodic dancing tones.

Ellie too caught the sound, it utterly terrified her.
She glanced at me, at the house, and then as if to say "let's get out of here" she pulled hard on the leash. Doing her best to get away from the wind chimes. Looking at the house and it's mystery sound with frequency, until it was well out of site.  Her little dog brain trying to make sense of this new information.

We are like that sometimes. Frightened by the strange, the new, the unknown.

We pull hard in the opposite direction. 

There is no shame in being frightened and perplexed. It is a key part of our learning experience.  

However, unlike my sweet dog. We have the ability to understand on a level that is much more intricate and nuanced. We do not have to remain frightened and worried by that which is unfamiliar.

In fact, we have such a privilege to learn and grow and change.

We have tools at our fingertips that can help teach us. 
We have relationships with people who can share what they have learned.
​We have  the ability to discern.  We have the opportunity to build new relationships, to ask questions and seek information. 
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And
we may, still, armed with knew knowledge, carry fear.
But it is my hope that we would first move forward in love and curiosity before we cast a net of fear out before us.
Fear is like a snapchat filter. Fear is like a pair of foggy glasses. Fear is a means of distorting perception.  Be cautious about that which intensifies fear in your heart.
​

Once, as a little girl, I was looking out the back window of our family vehicle. It was night and we had been traveling for awhile.  I noticed a small feathery seed clinging to the window. It looked so strange. I didn't know it was a seed. I didn't know what it was.
Yet somehow, my wild imagination convinced me that it was a thing to fear.
I imagined that this seed could bore into my skin. That it would travel through my body.  It spooked me in such an impressionable way, honestly I do not know why or how or what justified this fear. It was completely and innocently made up in my seven year old brain. 

This year will hold many unknowns.
My creative business is changing. My artwork is expanding. I have new and exciting projects. I have growing connections and interesting challenges.
Personally we have decisions to make, treatment to plan for, embryos to bring home.  The political climate is feeling very unstable and I feel as if a constant noise of argument is humming in the background. People I know and love are facing heartbreak and uncertainty.
Friends,
this space... the here and now, it is a hard and difficult space to be sometimes. 
My hope is that my artwork, my words, my actions, and my love will inspire in you a new hope. 
One that lets fear fall into the shadows. 

​Forward, without fear. 2017