I am sorry that I have been so quiet of late. Thanks everyone for being so kind and concerned about me. The summer is my busiest time. I do two Farmer's Markets a week, and I travel around doing art shows. I have been preparing for two art shows for the past couple of weeks, so I have been in the studio framing, framing and framing some more. Now I need to matte up a bunch of prints. I thought went I went into business for myself, I would have more free time. Not the case at all! I've never worked harder, but I've never been happier.

I've also been going through a challenging time these last weeks that Saturn is in my sign. Saturn is all about ending cycles and that started 30 years ago and starting new ones. Many challenges have come before me...seeds that I planted didn't sprout....something that has never happened to me, and for some reason triggered me greatly....then after I did some inner work about this, lo and behold, a month and a half later, they began sprouting! Sometimes you just need to let things go. You just need to let the winds come and blow away what you no longer need to hold of....sometimes it is about simple, sweet surrender...not giving up at all, but surrendering...trusting, finding faith, and in so doing, you create the fertile soil for things to grow.

Then my computer crashed a bad crash. It appears that Vista enjoys creating parallel realities, and my entire computer world is still in disarray even though I have a new hard drive. Usually, this is something that would have driven me nuts. However, it was another lesson for me to take things in stride...to do what I can when I can and to just let it all go.

I also have gone through some challenging relationship issues with friends of late. Luckily, my boyfriend is straight and true. He is such a support to me. His belief in me and my artwork never waivers, and I am so grateful for him to be in my life.

However, I have had a couple of friends that seem to think I need to give up my whole artwork dream and just focus on other things. In the past I have kept my mouth shut saying to myself over and over, "They are just saying this because they care about me." Then one day I snapped. If they did care about me, they wouldn't say these things. They wouldn't hurt me by saying these things, and it suddenly became unacceptable to me. I drew my line in the sand, and I lost a couple of friends because they just couldn't get what I was trying to say or ask of them. I am sad, but I understand that they need to be where they need to be as I need to be where I need to be. What is interesting after I let all of this go is that I have sold several hundred dollars in prints and I won first place in an art show and an honorable mention award!

Surrender, surrender, and surrender some more. Let things go, so new things can grow. Plant seeds to creativity, compassion, passion, loving kindness, and peace, and just sit back and watch it all grow!