Feelings, Holidays and Love, actually.
This is one of my favorite paintings. I’m so glad it found a great home! Thanks, Becky!
This time of year, I get so emotional.
It’s like all the feelings that haven’t had their way with me during the year surface for one last final “hurrah!”
Tis the season, right?
This morning I took a fast, freezing walk with my friend. We took a tiny little detour and of all the crazy things I stumbled and fell HARD on my face and left hand in a tiny little patch of gravel.
Please be careful my gravel bike riding friends, gravel hurts. Liz, Barry and Maddie and Mel, I am talking about you!
This sudden fall hurt my feelings so bad.
Accidents are just so startling, aren’t they?
It’s funny, I named one of my favorite paintings, “Have you ever hit your head so hard it hurt your feelings?” Because yes, we ‘re very capable of hurting our own feelings and to be honest, self-inflicted hurt is a tough kind of hurt. Feels a bit like betrayal.
Oh, and I’m pretty sure, I’ll be sporting a sweet little shiner for Christmas.
But then, what happened next gave me a different set of emotions. This sweet man immediately stopped his run and offered to go get his car and take us home. But it was too late. My friend had called her husband and was he was already in his car and on the way. Complete with a bag of ice. They took me to their home, and he carefully washed and picked the gravel off me. (I’m fine, I’m fine. It was embarrassing, another doozie of an emotion, how minor my wounds were after we washed me up.) But still the care of both friends and a complete stranger almost made me start crying all over again.
It filled my heart with LOVE to be honest. I felt so loved.
Then later in the day, I saw a friend and excitedly shared an Ultrasound photo on my phone of my yet to be born grandson. We’re all so in love with that sweet little unborn fella it’s just crazy, I hope on some level he already feels the love in store for him as he quietly grows in his mama’s belly.
And that’s when it hit me.
The most amazing FEELING on the planet is anticipation. This might sound weird but every time I sit down to paint, I get this amazing feeling of anticipation.
Anticipation is a magic feeling to be honest.
Kenny Rogers once said the key to happiness is something to do, someone to love and something to look forward to…
So tonight, after carefully wrapping my very last present for a dear, sweet friend (oh, I can’t wait to give it to you!), and placing it under the tree, I decided to make a list of everything I’m looking forward to in the coming year. That simple act was so magical. It turned my entire day around.
Some place warm with a sandy beach is high on that list for sure.
It made me realize how much possible adventure is in front of me. I know I am not in control of a lot of things, none of us are, but I’m big believer in power of intention and this Winter Solstice exercise relaxed me in a way I can’t even explain.
So, if you are on the emotional struggle bus during this holiday. Do like me, and watch Love, Actually for the 17th time and sit down with a pen and paper and write a list of everything you’re looking forward to in the coming days and years.
It’s like an amazing, calming tonic for your soul.
Happy Holidays Everyone!
I hope you’re surrounded by LOVE. I hope you offer your healing LOVE to those around you. Including complete strangers. And I hope, like me, you find yourself in awe of the magic of the season whenever you get the chance.
LOVE, Robbin
