“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” —Bruce Lee

Somehow, I’ve found myself if a period of intense productivity, which feels great. I no longer feel like I need to dwell on my grief, so this also feels like a kind of emergence. I’m not sure where I’m meant to land in this journey, but there is a feeling of momentum once again.

This Wednesday, I’ll be hanging an exhibit of my recent painted ladies at the beautiful Mission Viejo Library. They will be up for Women’s History Month, until the end of March. I’m excited for the opportunity as even before I painted Eleanor (the first of the series) I imagined them as part of educational shows in libraries or other civic spaces. So this is hitting the ground running. I’ve been trying to paint as many of these as I can before Wednesday’s deadline. Now they are mostly all framed and ready to go. (I might have time for one more, we’ll see.)

The other big news is that I produced my first podcast, something that surely will be a sharp learning curve for awhile. It’s an interview with Justine discussing what inspires her about Harriet Tubman (we’d read about her at bedtime for a few nights.) You can check it out here if you are interested. As you will hear, Harriet Tubman was brain injured as a child. It’s quite remarkable that she was able to accomplish all she did with that disability. It made us wonder if sometimes the disability is a sort of gift which allows people to be extraordinarily focused perhaps on the one or two things that truly gives their life meaning. As I continue to learn about the histories of these heroines, I am finding some common attributes about humanity. Often it is those who have experienced great loss that are motivated to make the world a better place. I would hope that our family takes on that path of turning great grief into great good. I am inspired.

If I have to live my life without Vernon, then I get to create the life I want to live. That’s how I see it, anyway.

PS Next weekend, I’ll be hanging another beloved series of paintings at the Syren’s Hair Parlor in San Clemente. I’ve just finished painting the frames that a friend, Bob Lloyd, helped me build.  And God-willing, I’ll have another podcast going up this week. (Next up: Mother Teresa.)