Today is my Thankfulness Day

Good morning!
Today is my thankfulness day!
My life is as it because of other People and Beings!  And to those mentioned and those holding a silent place in my heart, I thank you!

 **I am grateful to the Great Spirit and the Mother Goddess.
In this time of Earth change, everyone needs a spiritual guiding force in their life.
The Great Spirit has  been in my life since I was born, and the Goddess has taught me that the world needs her feminine principle most desperately in order for us evolve and become the "Heaven on Earth" we are destined to be.
There is so much more beyond Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Wicca, or any of the other religion.
But we cannot embrace our true spirituality from any one of their teachers or any holy book. These teachers and holy words are only to mark the path we are traveling.  They are not the end means.
We must discover that place where we are are 'saved' from within ourselves through experience, and knowledge, and finally wisdom.
It will come. Be Patient.

**My husband has my most heart-felt thanks for being my partner and mentor.
He has been a wonderful and devoted friend and husband to me for 34 years, a devoted and loving father for 33 years, and has spent his entire adult life years devoted to the K-12 age children, and the adults whom he works, day after day,  as a teacher, councilor, mentor and and the go to computer guy.
Because of his willingness to live the day to day work culture, he has allowed me the freedom to be a true wife, mother and homemaker.
When we were first married, we decided that I would stay home to raise the children and keep house.
All these wonderful years, it has been a choice and not a sacrifice to live on one salary.
Because of this arrangement, I have blossomed as a woman, a wife, a mother, and as an artist.

**My parents come next on this thankful list.
They taught me at a early age the excellent mores and values that me through life, these I instilled into the characters of our children: honesty, integrity, being a good citizen, compassion, kindness.  Sure they made mistakes, but my goodness so have I.

**Siblings in a family are blessings to each other: my sisters I thank for teaching me how to be a girl. I was pretty much a tomboy for most of my childhood. They were two females other than my Mom I could look up to and immulate.

**My brother, who recently crossed over, for being constant playmate to me when we were little. He had the most steadfast love for his departed wife and friend. And at a younger age, he taught me the healing benefit of laughter.

**Our three children who have each given more to me than I can ever return to them:
-Our daughter who inspired me to "embrace my curves" when I have always been very self-conscious of my imperfect body. This was a milestone for me, darling daughter! And she teaches me to smile in adversity.
-Our eldest son, who through his own trials and determination to create goodness from those trials, has inspired me to have the courage to change things up.  He has shown me that there are always unlimited options in our choosing.  I have always been timid toward change! 
-Our youngest son, who has given me the glimpse of living a joyful life moment by moment, and in accepting the changes of life that can come in that moment.  So I have thrown away my scheduler and await each moment with eager expectation! He has re-inspired me to travel and be curious about what is out there.

**Our beautiful and intelligent grand-children who have blessed our life with their endearing qualities of helplessness, eagerness, willingness, wonder, curiosity, gratefulness, acceptance, and the forgotten sweetness of childhood.

**These two ladies: Virginia Lee Williams and Nita Leland co-authored an extra-ordinary book entitled Creative Collage Techniques, and Nita Leland expanded the original by authoring the New Creative Collage Techniques.  I thank them from my deepest heart.
Always have I been daunted by collage, but after reading their book, and following the so-easy-to-understand projects, the exciting world of collage in all its aspects has opened up for me.
Having this new found confidence in my abilities, I am now traveling a collage path with no end in site!

**Of course, there are others: family, friends, not so friendlies, who have helped change my life for the better. And to these unspoken ones, know that there is a place in my thankful heart for you.

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Artfire Studio Has Gone Live

Finally, I have my studio up and running on Artfire:
<a href="http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/WhereTwoRiversMeet">WhereTwoRiversMeet - ArtFire Seller Shop</a>
I hope I did that right.

I have a much greater appreciation for those who can do these web and blog sites flawlessly.

But never fear, I am determined to become quite the social network person!
**
Live is an adventure: every day, every moment.
When one is creating art and crafts, evolution is happening!
Not only does one manifest what is in their heart, mind and spirit when you bring to life a new creation, but the energy that is created anew from that art is your energy released into the universe.
And what goes out from you, comes back to you.
Part of the adventure is 'when' will it come back.

Recent adventures in my crafting include: setting up the studio on Artfire. Taking the pictures and writing descriptions is time consuming.  And uploading it, etc. etc.
Kudos to those of you who do computer work all the time.

Then, I have to relearn all about Facebook so that it can be another venue for my art.  I closed my old account.
And a twitter account, and now this blog.
So many things can go wrong in this adventure. But, it is the 5% that has gone right thus far that is so rewarding.

Next time, I will share more about myself.  What fun!