Connecting the dots.

I've heard the saying "you cannot connect the dots looking forward in your life, only by looking backwards."  How true that is.

I've been looking at some dots lately and doing some connecting.   What I really need to do is put the dots on paper and actually connect them to really see.

There have been some amazing connections going on in my life, but I am only now able to see them by looking back.

This past Saturday I got a surprise that was, well....surprising!  I got an email early in the morning from Kathy Wilkins with The Brave Girls Club telling me that I was their featured artist of the day for their daily inspirational emails which go out to thousands and thousands of women.  I was truly honored, and shocked!  I had submitted, sort of on a whim, a piece of "bird" art in January, never ever expecting anything to come of it.  I mean, heck, they must get thousands of submissions, and it says they're picked totally at random.  What were my chances?!

Yet, here it was in my inbox.  http://tinyurl.com/b8p27zx Had I known it would really happen, I would have submitted "better" (more to my liking) art, and had a better photo of myself on my website for them to capture!

I sat there explaining all of this to my husband, and I was actually in tears (and I am not a very emotional person).  I told him that it gave me a sense of "you're on the right path" and that things will work out in the direction I'm heading, which I think he really needs to hear and know, because I believe he's very skeptical about all this. 

To connect some dots...I had found out about The Brave Girls Club a few years ago and signed up for their daily emails in the hopes that their inspiration would help me through a rather rough spot in my life.  I took their Soul Restoration classes too, and would hole up in my craft room most evenings doing art and watching the videos/doing the classes (ok, and crying and having some wine!).  I have saved almost every email from them, and actually used to print them off and put them around the high school for girls to find, but that's another story.

I took a class from Melody Ross about a year and a half ago at The Creative Connection event in St. Paul.   Such a sweetheart!  And then I was signed up to attend their Brave Girls Camp last May, but cancelled it when our first grandchild was due to enter the world at the same time.  Who could risk missing that?!  Someday I'll get there.

And now, to be their featured artist of the day was simply amazing.

Dots connected.

I have a lot of people on my dot radar this past year, connections from years ago that are returning, and new dots too.  It really is simply amazing how life connects and you never know what a day will bring.

Nothing to do with

art today...just Monday Musings.

I had to shake my head this morning and think "wow, what a sad state of the world when people feel they have to thank us for being honest."

I stopped at the local Dunn Bros. for coffee this morning, and when I got to the window I handed the guy a ten.  I was aware of that only because while I was waiting for the car in front of me, I was holding up and examining the ten dollar bill, marveling at the intricacy of the details. 

He gave me my latte, and started handing me back my money...a ten, four ones and some change. 

Ah....wait!!  "I only gave you a ten" I told him.  He looked a little startled and said "oh man, it's been one of those mornings, thank you for being honest."

It just kind of made me think about how honesty is so unexpected these days.  I could have driven away almost five dollars richer and with a free latte!

But knowing that I didn't, and knowing he was not out the money at the end of his shift made me smile even more than just having the fabulous latte in hand.