bursting with gratitude

(out in the sunshine...reading my article!!!)

My heart is full of gratitude these days (+ a little disbelief). I just wanted to share with all of you some amazing...over the top crazy wonderful kinda' amazing....news. I have a 6 page spread in the current Somerset Studio!!!! The thing that I am the most proud about is that I dived really deep deep deep inside of mySELF and wrote very truthfully about my art/life/soul journey. I was afraid to be so vulnerable...but...it also felt really really good to lay bare so much. It was freeing. Thank you so very very much Somerset Studio...thank you to all the amazing he(ART)-full creatives who work over there producing all those gorgeous art mags...thank you for believing in me + giving me a chance.
 And if you think I am happy...Tara is ecstatic to see mommy's art in a magazine!!! She can't stop talking about it ..."I'm so proud of you mommy...you are such a smart little girl"  This Tara girl is the light of my life.

And...does it get any easier each time I send in a submission? Actually...NO!!!! I still break out into a cold sweat, second guess myself and procrastinate. I still have to talk mySELF into sending things off...and take a deep breath. but...I am getting braver baring more and more of my truth. These past few weeks I have been answering questions for an interview I am doing with the amazing Rita Banerji...I have been sitting with them and reaching far far into mySELF. It is very painful at times yet...very healing as well to lay claim to my journey.

And...my blog header is featured in the current Artful Blogger in Banners We Love!!!!  It means so much to me because...this is the magazine that inspired me to start my own blog. Tara was just oh!! ...about 7 or 8 months old and I was going through a very difficult time. I was adjusting to motherhood, Tim had to be away for work quite a bit and I had to have emergency gall bladder surgery. In addition to all of that...some people in my life at the time who should have been supportive of me were quite the opposite. I remember a lot of crying + depression  + overwhelm. So when I picked up a copy of Artful Blogging one day at the bookstore...I simply couldn't believe this whole creative world of words + art + photographs + lives in progress.  A whole new world opened up to me. A world I could step into and  become a part of. Thank you Artful Blogging + Somerset Studio...for inspiring me...and for featuring me. This is an absolute dream come true + I am simply resting in these moments right here...right now.

And thanks to all of you, too, dear friends + kindred souls. I may (or may not) even know that you are reading my words...but by being a witness to my journey..you are a part of it. And for that...I am incredibly grateful and give my heartful thanks.