I’m currently on the island of St. Croix in the USVI – watching as the title suggests – the tide roll in.

I mean – someone has to do it – right?

Lately I’ve been thinking about my parents – who reached a stage in their lives where watching the tide roll in and roll out seemed like a reasonable thing to do. I never thought I’d get there – but I’m guessing that 75 is about right.

It’s not that I’m not busy! I decided to be an artist – and that’s a serious challenge if you’ve ever tried to paint or draw or create something new. I’ve always felt that I was best at moving ideas from one place to another. Of saying – well that idea worked well for learning to play bridge – let’s try it to learn to do something else. That’s not really being creative though you know. That’s just moving ideas around.

Being creative – coming up with something new – that’s a whole lot harder – and I do love a challenge.

So Being an Artist…

I have a very dear friend – Thea – who is what I’d call the ultimate artist. She sees things I can’t see – applies them to places I can only see the barest outlines of – and I’ve always thought she did it effortlessly.

Image my surprise when she admitted to me that it wasn’t effortless. Wow – I never knew that.

On a similar note – my sister has also decided to paint. She’s doing watercolours – to my acrylic efforts – and the results are dramatically different – and quite stunning. To my eye – effortless. But apparently that’s not true either.

I suppose it’s reasonable to recognize that we all see our internal efforts differently from how they appear to the outside world. Unless I hear your grunt and groan – It’s natural to imagine that for you – that was easy to do.

Well – I can tell you that for me – the only thing I find easy to do is smile. Writing my blog, painting pictures, even doing Yoga isn’t easy. It’s hard. I have to mentally say – ok – I’m going to do this. And sometimes it takes several encouraging internal monologues to get me started.

Anyway – right now – I’m watching the tide roll in….

Have a totally wonderful day! Signing off – the Soup Lady