This week is always the week of loss for me. My mother and bonus dad both died this week in June. My first cat. I expect death to show up.
When people you love die? It hurts. It resonates and it ripples and you can sometimes associate love with loss.
But you still have to love.
People are beautiful and broken, flawed and therefore perfect. They might hurt you or uplift you or do it simultaneously, but it’s so important to love. That goes for yourself too. Nobody knows your flaws better than you do, but you have to be brave enough to not dwell on them, to love yourself despite them or even because of them.
You deserve to be loved. You deserve to love. Yes, it’s scary. But you’ve got this.
Here’s my random painting. It’s still so hard to show these! Some day I hope it will be easier. Thanks for bearing with me!
It’s Juneteenth, which is the anniversary of the day when so many enslaved people in Texas realized finally that they were free. That knowledge happened two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Knowledge is power, right? And when you want to keep people oppressed, you take away their knowledge.
Today, I hope you educate yourself about your self, about your community, about things outside your circle. Today, I hope you find bravery in your thoughts and deeds as you seek the knowledge of who you are and your part of your community and society.
Today, I hope you will be brave with me as we think about people who are now being so brave in so many ways. Today, I hope you will hope with me and work towards a future where bravery isn’t always quite so necessary, where it can be a choice instead.
Here’s my random painting. Much love to all of you.
Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!
Someone very kind won something from someone else very kind and gave it to my dogs just because I post picture of those dogs here on weekdays.
And that kindness?
That need to help, to grow, to help others, to lift each other up and recognize it when good happens? I
t’s not schmaltzy. It’s brave. It’s beautiful. It’s love. And it’s how us humans are meant to be.
I am so grateful to Jack Russell and Megan Smith and to all of you cool humans who are so kind to me and who try to grow, evolve, love, encourage and change.
Here’s my painting from today. Love to all of you.
Brave towards mountains
WHERE TO FIND OUR PODCAST, DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE.
I have a new book out!!!!!! It’s an adult mystery set in the town where we live, which is Bar Harbor, Maine. You can order it here. And you totally should.
Over the years, I’ve talked about the time my dark-skinned dad and I were fishing at a stream in New Hampshire and white men surrounded us, got aggressive, and called my dad the N-word. I was eight or so. I am very white and I had never seen overt racism before. When I was a couple years older, I volunteered for Jesse Jackson and saw it again and again and again, so much so that they wouldn’t let me do doors with the other workers because they were protecting me, the random, little, white kid.
I have always been shocked at my white friends’ shock that racism exists in big ways and small, in our society and ourselves.
That’s it. Because this is not about me and it damn well shouldn’t be. It’s about learning, growing, and doing what we can do to be active allies in making our communities and our selves better, united, equitable, and just.
It’s Be Brave Friday and here is a work in progress because aren’t we all works in progress?
Be brave, friends. I am so sorry when you are forced to be brave and proud of you when you choose to be.
Here are some links where you can help, many of which come from Inside the Kandish (linked below)
As you know (hopefully) BE BRAVE FRIDAY started over on my Facebook and it’s because I am afraid to share my art because (cough) I have issues. I know! Stunning revelation right there, right?
Anyways, I had an epiphany last night that so many of my paintings have ghost women in them. And I realized that they have ghost women in them is because I waffle all the time between:
Afraid of being seen.
Tired of not being seen.
If you are a woman or a member of an oppressed group, you probably know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about:
Going into a conference as a speaker and everyone assuming the guy with you is the talent.
Being at a board meeting and saying something and everyone ignores your suggestion until Chad says the exact same thing two minutes later and everyone is like, “Wow. Right, Chad. Good idea, Chad.”
Trying to talk in a Zoom meeting and everyone just talking over you. Actually that goes for everyone.
And then there are the times you don’t want to be seen because it feels dangerous to be seen, to be known, to be noticed, in a society that can be full of trolls and drama and violence. If you have never felt that way, I am so happy for you.
But anyways. I think I am tired of being a ghost but sometimes it’s just so hard to be brave and materialize.
I hope you are brave today and all days and seen when you want to be seen.
WHERE TO FIND OUR PODCAST, DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE
Link to Caitlyn’s bonus episode. Books, Law School during Covid-19 and just being Kick Butt – Using Law to Create Lasting Change – Interview with Caitlyn Vanover
I have a new book out!!!!!! It’s an adult mystery set in the town where we live, which is Bar Harbor, Maine. You can order it here. And you totally should.
It’s with Steve Wedel. It’s scary and one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Buzz Books for Summer 2019. There’s an excerpt of it there and everything! But even cooler (for me) they’ve deemed it buzz worthy! Buzz worthy seems like an awesome thing to be deemed!
Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!
Admitting that your anxious, afraid, upset? That’s called being honest. Being honest isn’t weakness no matter how many people might try to deny your truths and tell you that it is.
Being honest is being brave.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines bravery as: “the quality or state of having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty; the quality or state of being brave; courage.”
I know you are all being brave in big a ways and small, facing danger, fear, difficulties and I so admire you.
Act with love not fear, okay?
Create safe spaces for yourself and for others. Be a warrior about it. Be a love warrior. A bravery warrior. You can do this.
Here is my painting for BE BRAVE FRIDAY. The oil is still wet. But you’ll forgive me, right? It is still terribly hard for me to share these whenever I do, I feel like I’m about to explode into flames.
<3 So much love to all of you.
WHERE TO FIND OUR PODCAST, DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE
I have a new book out!!!!!! It’s an adult mystery set in the town where we live, which is Bar Harbor, Maine. You can order it here. And you totally should.
It’s with Steve Wedel. It’s scary and one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Buzz Books for Summer 2019. There’s an excerpt of it there and everything! But even cooler (for me) they’ve deemed it buzz worthy! Buzz worthy seems like an awesome thing to be deemed!
Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!
Hey, it’s Be Brave Fridayover on my Facebook and now here too and I don’t have a finished painting to share, so you’ll have to see one that’s in progress. It’s garish and raw and not even cropped, which is how I feel at the moment.
But more important than that, in this time of COVID-19, in this week where I’ve seen one friend lose her young husband to a heart attack and another lose his family camp to a fire, I just want to tell you that there are so many levels of being brave.
And just continuing on? That’s tremendously brave.
To be human, to live, is to be brave.
Thank you all so much for being brave with me. I am so lucky to have you and know you. So much love to all of you.
Raw Exploration
WHERE TO FIND OUR PODCAST, DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE
