It’s not the wacky kind of story you might think.
My four different 2022 calendars were one of the biggest challenges ever for me to create. Yet, I really believe they will go down as some of the best work I ever created. What you may not know is that my 2022 calendars, the ones in this post, all had to be finalized during 2020. (Yes, I have to work two years ahead!) As if the pandemic wasn’t enough , it was also just a few month after my daughter had passed away from cancer. WOW Talk about a challenge.
I was blessed to be surrounded by support.
Everyone wanted to give me space to grieve. Blue Mountain Arts, the amazing company I work with for my calendars asked if I wanted to take a year off. I thought about it. But what I knew I needed was just the opposite. So, I chose to buoy up all my inner wacky strength and then, and in tribute to her, do all I could to make it my best year yet. Since we were deep on the throws of the 2020 pandemic I couldn’t imagine what 2022 would be like. So I reverted back to what I have always done in such a situation.
I fell to my knees and I prayed about it.
I begged for inspiration from both God and my sweet, fearlessly brave daughter, who was without exception the most “Crazy Brave, Wicked Strong” girl I have ever known. I wanted to create a body of work that would inspire, uplift and empower you for the coming year whatever it might bring. I wanted something that would remind us to loving and kind to each other with my “Be Kind” small calendar and to remember to cherish the precious relationships we hold so dear with my Granddaughter calendar. And as I chose the title for the day timer/ planner, “Rise By Lifting Others,” little did I realize that I was also stating a self fulfilling prophecy.
I began to RISE!
As I dove into the project I got excited. I laughed again. I smiled again. And I found joy in the creation process. What evolved is what I truly believe might very well become the best collection of my work I have ever created. The project forced me to truly look deep inside myself for an inner strength I didn’t know I had. I had to rewrite the script inside my head of what my future would be without her in it. I had to change my mindset so as to continue to create a wonderful life for my other children and grandchildren. I had to choose to move past my own grief and honor her by not only being fierce, steadfast and true, but by daring to once again to dream and be my free spirited, remarkably magnificent self!!!! Ha!
I can breathe again!
Creating these calendars was like life giving me another chance to once again live. As I vowed to celebrate my daughters life by embracing my own I was able to create this work that I believe with all my heart will help you refocus on the fun, joy and inspiration we will all embrace to get us to create a life worth loving in 2022.
