It is almost the end of 2021.
A lot have happened this year and I’ve learned a lot.
Two of the most important things that I’ve learned are to keep trying and to appreciate whatever I have right now.
At the beginning of the year, I had not much going on (except working on my picture book which is important to me) but I kept applying to artist calls. Sometimes I didn’t get them but I’d learn something from the experience. Maybe I learned from the interview about what the jurors were looking for. Maybe I created artwork that could be added to my portfolio or maybe I got new ideas for some other projects. Sometimes, getting rejections were hard and I didn’t want to try anymore. But I told myself what’s the harm of just applying to another call. Then I would get something and I felt good about having tried.
Writing grants and applying to artist calls has become part of my life. I have no idea what I will be doing in the next 3-6 months but in a way, that’s an adventure. I am walking on a path that’s lit by light about only one foot in front of me but I believe there’s some universal force guiding us.
I love what Joseph Campbell said about the Knights in search of the Holy Grail that “Each entered the forest at a point that he himself had chosen, where it was darkest and there was no path. If there is a path it is someone else’s path and you are not on the adventure.”
I am going with the flow of life. The force that guides the stars guides us too. I love to think about the universe, how immensely expansive it is that we can’t even imagine with our little human brains. This makes me touchy feely and I realized my birth name in Chinese means literally “Think Universe.” Maybe it was a clue that I gave myself when I came here?
