The Power of Art, Friendship, Networking, Facebook and Laziness.

A lone-trip to California years ago has hammered in me how much beauty is waiting for you around the corner if only you have the courage to walk through it. At that time I had no choice. I was on holiday on my own aware that had I not taken chances, explored, kept myself open to people and experiences I'd have spent 30 days alone in a hostel common room. And so from the very beginning I seemed to have signed up for a crashtest on my level of acceptance and ability to adapt to new circumstances. It started from the beginning: the flight was delayed and I missed my connection in unknown Atlanta. I shouldn't have worried. I was put up in a fab room at the Hilton. Later, the minute I dropped my bag off at the San Diego Youth Hostel I was offered a lift to the beach by two yankee boys. In my head a soundtrack made up of my mum's warnings and all the movies I had ever watched about silly trusty girls. Yet I went and had a great day. From then on the improbable and the unexpected followed: a spur of the moment night hop over the Mexican border to taste Tijuana's infamous clubs in the company of two funky Americans and two lovely but slightly scaredy-cats Italians, a James Dean type of near-death experience on the CA 101 to San Francisco with an Aussie boy an a rented cabrio, a psychedelic encounter with a generous and sweet marjuana grower and a trip on his van to deliver some to San Francisco's terminally illed, a fun night with a bunch of drunken charming Rhys Meyers-lookalikes Irish lads, dancing at the gay pride are just some of the many I recount.

Indeed I often felt lonely and wondered what I was doing there, why I had chosen to do this, alone. And I'd mop for a while feeling sorry for myself. But then, choiceless, I'd pick myself up and go somewhere, unwittingly toward something. And this something was always a door to something magnificent. Very much like Dorothy opening the door of her gray bedroom onto the colourful Wizard of Oz.
I promised myself to keep all those wise lessons in my head once back in England and back to a relationship that was suffering from fatigue and stagnation. The relationship did not survive but I kept trying living by this matra, with as much force and intention as possible within the restriction of a non-holiday setting. I was helped by my faith in the world and its inhabitants, having being lucky enough to experience the positives that life has to offer far more times than I have done with its opposites. Admittedly it has not always been easy and it has become even harder now with the anchoring that three human attachments provide - their needs, wellbeing, desires not always matching my own, their corners often being not the same as mine. Sometimes pulling my family along with me across my own threshold has worked. More often it seems we each have our own individual corners to find and turn. 
 
And so a heartfelt thank you to Julia who with her artwork today has reminded me once again 'to go with the flow, expect the unexpected, not worry if things don’t turn out as planned, and remain open to all possibilities.'

Here is the blog of her 30 Day challenge http://becreativedaily.com/. It starts today. Hope it has the power to uplift your day too.