Follow your dreams…following my dreams has not meant I have written a best seller or scored a movie deal. It has not meant selling my art and being famous or rich. For me following my dreams has been an ongoing discovery of self and life in the midst of my creativity. What I have tried to do more than anything is to be true to my gifts. To use the talent I have been given to the best of my ability regardless of results. It has been hard traveling this road of rejection, but it has also taught me so much about the value of failure and bright light of persistence. There has been way more failure and persistence than there has been small successes. I have fallen more than I have climbed, but by the power of grace, I have managed to stand again and try again each time I have stumbled, fallen and wept for my broken, damaged, lost hopes. Do I hope again? I have tried not to, but always after a little time, I feel my heart rise inside of me. A new idea, thought or image takes root and becomes the avenue of my next creative endeavor. There is a kind of magic in the process of not giving up. There are however aspects of my dreams that I have released, like money, fame, world wide reach. Once I defined myself by my lack of success, money, recognition. I had to let that go as well. What matters most is the time I spend in pursuit of the stories and images that reside in my mind and heart. I do more than chase them, I put them on paper and fulfill them with words or glass, or ink, or paint. Even if no one sees what I have created, I still feel so thankful to be able to participate in the act of creation. I remind myself that so much beauty is never seen by human eyes. Does that mean the beauty does not exist without being seen? No that is not what it means. Beauty exists regardless of the number or complete lack of spectators. I have been given the opportunity to be among those who create. While I am not always thankful, I am in retrospect grateful for the ongoing adventure this creative life has given to me