Courage Come Slowly

Courage Come Slowly
I titled this site "courage come slowly" because that is how it seems to come. Slowly. Not by leaps and bounds of new courage to do or to be, but by little realizations of "oh, I did that, and maybe that does work". "Oh, I think I CAN live with this, or that", or tolerate a fear long enough for it not to be a fear anymore. Solo life is a scary thing to me. In this precess of coming to another country, I am finding that solo does not mean alone. Solo is my state of living without a partner, but alone, I am not. I make friends all the time, and the ones I made last week are better friends this week, and on and on we go, ever growing closer.

I have so many more strengths than I did a year ago. I panic less, I tolerate more, and I begin to recover from a long and painful marriage. Now, everyday has happiness in it. I have peace. I am hungry to learn new things, and have more strength to do so. I am less afraid of the world. I am becoming "me". My physical health is improving, too.

New opportunities are on the horizon, and I hope to be completely on my feet within the next 2 years. I feel appreciated here. Why I don't feel appreciated in the U.S., may have something to do with the way a lot of people view art and artist in the U.S. Art is is widely valued in the U.S. as a precious gift. Is seems to be looked at with an aw, but also the attitude of "not ever going to make you money". The same attitude my family expressed when I was a child. The implied message being that if you didn't make money, you were worthless as a person. How many artists have received the question, "So when are you going to get a real job?" ---too many.

How is it that we say so little encouragement to artists in the U.S., and then pay billions of dollars for the products of creative people? Every movie, TV advertisement, magazine, photo, print, and sign, are the works of creatives. Did you know that every item you see in a film, was placed there with intent? Every jar, can, spoon in a kitchen, every shirt, every stain on every shirt, every fluff of soap bubbles, etc, were placed there by artists of costume and set design.

Watch the film, The Bucket List, again. When the character sits in the soap bubbles and talks, the scene flips from one character to the other. Watch the scene carefully, for the position of the soap bubbles on his chest. If you observe your own bubble bath, you will see that the bubbles tend to minimize with time, and slip down the body. But somehow his bubbles get more fluffy, and slipped UP his body, in a scene that seems to take seconds. This just made me roar with laughter at how I was "into" the film, and then realized that is is still a work of art, not a real thing happening. It is a "story" that is in motion. It is lovely and sweet, and and creative, and it is art--and we paid millions of dollars to view it.