re/IMAGINE...FINDING HOME
HOW I FOUND HOME RIGHT UNDER MY NOSE
This year--this season of life left me open-ended, open-handed and surrendered; my first season of empty-nesting, my almost 25th anniversary of making jewelry, 2020 and my need to keep hope alive. As an artist, there is this pause in time right before I have to do a new collection that I literally feel like..."OK I have finally run out of ideas". I know the ideas will be there but they haven't formed yet. It's both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.
This concept extended to how I felt as my twins went off to college, I had no vision of what life might be like. Having this empty and open space was the beginning of a new and amazing season of life.
For most of my adult life I have had trouble asking for and feeling OK about doing things for myself that I really knew I needed. One of these things was to make a design space in my current studio where I could have some privacy and "thinking space". For 15 years I have struggled to find a way to quiet my mind in the midst of all the work around me to be creative. It has been the source of deep frustration. ONE DAY, hear me when I say ONE DAY...after talking with a friend who asked what it would be like if I took this certain back space in my studio for designing. At that moment I could not imagine at all. So I went back there behind a partial wall and sat and IN AN INSTANT my whole body relaxed and I felt "protected". Three sweaty days later my new design space was born!
This is the view as you walk into my design space, and I love that you can see it from any where in the studio. I love to be around my collections of nature treasures and unlikely paired beautiful things. So a space that had been right under my nose became a new sanctuary, a new permission to be myself, a safe place to create. AMAZING!!! I had been praying for God to show me how I could operate in my current space! So many lessons to be learned from this as I also make my home a space that adults live, that speaks of joy and calm, that reflects inspiration. What I needed was there all along, now is just the right time to give it life. Now is the time to re/IMAGINE what life might be like when it has more balance and when it honors the person God made me to be. This all reminds me to be the courageous person who says "this is what I need".
As I prepare my heart and mind for my 25th anniversary, I am daring to IMAGINE and that in itself makes me smile! Come visit and let's talk, Suzan