Quote of the Week: Skillful Sailor

Those of you who follow me on Instagram may have caught this saying on a matchbox I just happened upon last Tuesday morning at my local coffee haunt. Well, as it turns out, it has, like many a nautical saying, made a special place in my heart. So special, in fact, that I ended up creating a painting in its honor this past weekend. So, here is this week's quote. I wish I knew who had said it, but, alas, it's unknown, so we'll just call it an English proverb.

Quote of the Week: November 19, 2012

I don't consider myself a hardened captain by any means. I believe I recently told someone that my rank was the equivalent of "running with scissors on the sea." Life has not been all storms and 50 foot swells. I know I've been blessed with health, good family, good friends, a loving husband, a loyal pup, and solid work...but this doesn't mean that life is always peachy keen.

I will have bad days. We all will.

I will have my creative blocks, my arguments, my self-doubt, my artistic questioning...I will have to deal with loss, with hardship, with trauma. It's what life brings with it and most of it can't be helped...but what can be helped is what we do with those experiences. What we learn from them. How we navigate through them.

When you think you're dealing with the urban (or suburban - I'm not sure where you all live) equivalent of falling overboard during a storm in the Arctic, know that after you've survived the whole ordeal, you will have become stronger for it. I don't doubt that there will be those times when you don't learn anything...when you keep banging your head against a wall in hopes that something will change...and for those who do that...well, you can only fall into the Arctic so many times before you run out of luck and end up being discovered 500 years later on some National Geographic special about ice drilling.

I've been in an interesting place recently...with a full-time job and blogging and painting and writing and illustrating. I've had plenty of mornings where I'm questioning what I'm doing or where I'm headed or if what I'm doing is sending me in the right direction. It's a process...but this sailor is doing her best to enjoy the journey, the days when the sea is smooth...to follow her north star...and learn from all the hardship she encounters, the rough winds and massive swells...in hopes that one day she'll come out another rank higher and a little bit wiser.

If you're currently battling some rough waves, stay strong. Keep moving forward and learn from what your'e experiencing. You'll come out a better seaman for it.

If you're on a glassy, serene journey right now, count your lucky stars and enjoy the crap out of it.

Hope you all have a wonderful week.

I gotta get back to scrubbin' the decks! xo!

Painting: by Nami M. Scott