AUGUST MOON 13 Day 4

What word did you choose as your travelling companion in 2013? How is it working for you? Where have the surprises been?

If you didn’t choose a guiding word, what word sums up your year so far? And why?

AUGUST MOON DAY 

COURAGE

After putting much thought into this prompt I have decided my guiding word for the year is “courage.”

I have finally have the courage to face some health issues I have tried to sweep under the rug hoping they would magically disappear but haven’t so now I am dealing with them. Nothing as extreme as some of my friends are facing but never the less it is something I have to face and conquer…and conquer I will…That is part of my stubborn streak coming through.

I am learning to say “no” without making any excuses for why I am saying “no.” I have spent so many hours of my life doing things I did not want to do but felt obligated to because I was ask to do them. Sometimes I would try to get out of doing something by saying I was too busy, too many other obligations, even being out of town at the time…whatever I could think of that might get me off. Finally I have had the courage to just say “no.” And if ask why I just say, "I choose not to." That took a lot of courage to get to this point in my life.

I have always been a ‘fixer’ in my family if there was some little or big issue that needed to be ‘fixed’. I would plan my strategies and events and work my butt off to make it work so the issues and problems would get ‘fixed’. Finally I realize I am not responsible for all or even part of everyone else’s problems. I do not need to 'fix' everything any longer. Now I just let them run their course knowing they will get taken care of the way they are meant to be taken care of…I may not always like the end result but it is as it is supposed to be. That took a great deal of courage on my part. To just keep my mouth shut and just let it happen.

Last on my list of courageous things for me is being an artist. It took me years, most of my life time, but I have finally had the courage to call myself an artist. I have also figured out that I am not fickle but that I am a mixed media artist which gives me the freedom to play at what suits my fancy at the moment without having to explain to any one ‘why’. I do what I do because I want to.

Illusion 

daylight hides

in a lake

of molten sun

Darlene Sperber