This is a custom painting I did for a friend. Her new home is done in blues and browns and she told me it looks amazing above her chocolate suede couch. I call it "Liquid Blue." It resembles how I feel most of the time. Like I'm going in several different directions and as I finally head down one path, something is thrown in front of me and I have to turn a different way. I guess life would be boring if my path remained the same everyday.
This morning as I was getting dressed, I heard on the news people are more depressed during this "recession" then they were during the "Great Depression." They attribute it to higher social status and physical beauty demands we have today. Because we are constantly bombarded by media to look beautiful, live in luxurious homes, travel to exotic locations, drive expensive cars and buy millions of products we need to make our lives better, we feel even worse when we can't obtain these things. It's true I often think about the stuff I don't have rather than what I do. How often are we thinking about the three hundred dollar Coach handbag to impress our girlfriends or the convertible Mercedes to look good as we pull in the company parking lot? Isn't it ironic that after a while carrying that purse or driving that car doesn't give us the same high it did when we first got it. The new smell wears off and it's not much better than the twenty dollar leather bag from the consignment shop and certainly not better than the GM car we had when it costs twice as much for a tune up.
At this moment, I'm grateful I have this house to keep me and my daughter warm from the insane thirty degree weather we're having this week in Florida. I'm grateful there is plenty of food in my pantry, clothes in my closet and a working car in the garage. This weekend I tried to call a friend and her phone had been shut off. I've been there and while I feel bad for her, I'm thankful today I'm not worrying about that.
I'm also very grateful it's my daughter's seventeenth birthday today. I know how devastating it is to have a child that no longer has birthdays. She is healthy, bright, beautiful (people say she looks like me ;) and very kind and sweet. Many parents tell me what a lovely, respectful young woman she is and I'm very proud. Bringing up a kind polite child these days isn't easy.
So, from now on when I feel depressed or like my world is spinning in a million directions, I'm going to take a deep breath and concentrate on all the wonderful things in my life.
