Posting for A-Z April Challenge

I hope you have been able to visit many of the blogs taking part in the A-Z Blogging challenge.  I am very proud of myself for getting this far.  For many of the blogs that you might visit most people are probably on their V words.  Today is serving as my P word.

I took the challenge primarilly to develop my writing in as many ways as possible, I also wanted to see what others creatives were doing and have met many inspiring people along the way.  I had given myself the additional challenge of not only writing on this blog but also to post on my other blog Amanda Trought Art.  This mean that instead of 26 I would have 52 posts to do over April.  I didn't get to preschedule any posts and so what then happened was life....there were days that I couldn't post because of the particular circumstance that day, or after a full day working blogging was the furthest thing from my mind.

To make sure that I complete the challenge what I have then had to do is play catchup and have been trying to post twice a day and where possible see if I can do some in advance.  After this post I only have 10 more on this blog to do and I have been patting myself on the back every step of the way because this has been one of my 'stepping out of my comfort zone' experiences.  Now I have got this far, lets see what else will appear on the list of challenges!  I do hope my post have been encouraging and inspiring, would love to see your comments.

Opportunity

I am always telling my son opportunity plus preparation equals results. We have been fortunate to have been able to visit Florida many times.  On this occasion we went to Seaworld and I had the opportunity to take this picture of the underside of an arm of an octopus.  I love the shapes of its suckers and how they look like O's .....

Nurturing

When we think of nurturing we think of mothers caring for their young until they are ready to fly the nest, and with birds, either with a gentle persuasion or a little push the bird is launched into the air with the knowledge that 'its' mother knows best', it has all the tools to complete the task of flying, it is ready!

As a young artist on my journey, I didn’t realise I needed to be in an environment of encouragement. On several occasions I allowed myself to listen to the negative criticisms of others and took it to heart, believing instead that they were right and I stopped being creative. Years later I discovered was not about my art, but about their own insecurities and dreams that had been killed at an early age.

I then began the task of hiding behind numerous other activities which didn’t bring the joy that I had found being creative, but would dip my toe in every now and then remembering what I really wanted to do. The catalyst that would change everything was suggesting to the day care centre for dementia that my mother attends that I could do a weekly art session with some of the clients. They agreed and I started the sessions.

I had to encourage  80 year old men and women who had been told that they were useless at drawing and who had not picked up a pen to do any kind of creative activity for nearly 70 years.  Some of them just didn’t see the point. Each week I would try different tactics until we got the balance right.

Six months later they were looking forward to the 2 hour session. We would combine creativity with singing and reminiscing, and we would regularly display their work, the art sessions continued for 2 years!

Encouraging the participants encouraged my heart and I decided that I would follow my passion to create, nurturing my dream for me.  I would spread my wings and fly into the adventure of self discovery, joy, understanding, and love. Think about any dreams you have that need nurturing, are there ideas you have pushed to the background for fear of what others think or don’t understand? and what barriers have you overcome?

Motherhood

I have written many posts about my mother, how she inspires, and has a joy to life, I hope at her age I am as vibrant and fun...

......and I have written about my son who is a blessing, who makes me proud, makes me laugh and is going to be 16 this year!

I am also a stepmother to Ahisha, who I have seen grow up into a beautiful young woman, and I hope I have and can continue to be equally as encouraging and inspiring...