Thank You.. You're Welcome;enJoying this Day

Oprah's Pearls~Janitha Richards,artist©99

I was particularly moved a week ago upon receiving a lovely long email from someone I've never met in real life. But we have met because of her talent. About 11 years ago I saw her art in a gallery in New Orleans which had my name all over it and had to have it. What I had not known then was it was her very 1st painting & I unknowingly was her 1st sale!

It was called "Oprah's Pearls" and it still has an honored place in my home. I bought it not knowing 6 years later I was going to create and present a piece of my own art to Ms. Winfrey who I have admired greatly who gave her gifts to the world being a huge advocate for service.

My service it turns out for this artist &mother, daughter & woman was a validation I had not known I had done. What I wanted was the image that was calling my name. My gift & promise to myself when I started my career as a visual artist 17 years ago was that I would share the wealth, no matter how meager my wealth would be.

So I always had what I called my "10%-er rule". Whenever I enjoyed a sale I would allocate a minimum of 10% & buy another artist. I've kept my word even to this day.

Well over a decade later in part because of Face book, this very talented woman found me. My heart was full upon reading her lovely words and how she had looked for me all this time to do one singular thing thanking me for what at the time I thought was the thing to do & doing it

What is telling that there are still people who are conscious, considerate & caring? You never ever know who when you put your hands out there who you have empowered. Most of the time you'll never know then something like this will pop up out of the blue. With her permission I am sharing part of her original message to me:

"Just starting out, I didn’t (and still) have any idea of to portray myself as an artist. I was terrified to show my work. And one day as I was learning my craft, an angel showed up and purchased my first painting. It was called "Oprah's Pearls". That day was one of the happiest and proudest of my life. Then to find out that the person was a great artist herself was just too much. Your support propelled me to pursue my present path as a visual artist and writer and will write my history.
I have sold other pieces since then, and each time I do I want to tell you about it. But the day was always bittersweet, because I never had the opportunity to meet and or thank the person who made me believe in my craft. I think you are that person. I have searched for you for years. Seriously for years, just to tell you thank you and how much that meant to me".
Believing in Miracles,
Janitha

I share this not for ego massaging, but to illustrate that no matter how small you may think what you do can not ripple out and mean a lot to another. I’ve been on the receiving end many times of somewhat gracious patience, expertise; cheers as I meandered along do what I am purposed to do.

Sometime, one may never know as it was for me initially that something you said or did or your humor, your tenderness, your sharing may reach someone in bigger ways then you may imagine. You do not have to be lettered, possess an earth defying skill or jump the highest or throw the furthest or have Oprah Winfrey/ Bill Gates money to be of service or the catalyst for another human being.

Something Dr. Maya Angelou said to me in the lobby of a hotel as I was escorting her to her car after speaking at the African American Women on tour stayed with me for 15 years. In part her comment was in regards to commercial success& creative success was “People think that money & recognition walks hand in hand. Do what you do well. Recognition will come…and then the money will follow”. It was one of many pearls of wisdom I gleaned from that amazing woman.

I’ve carried many just like with this woman, who in small & large ways wave the wind to carry me on gently nudging me to face the sun when I wondered if I should. I’ve done a’ight for a woman who had one semester of sewing in 1964, flunked it & was considered “too sensitive”, too much of a dreamer & was a joke to many, then and now.

Never ever is surprise if by chance long after the money or the memory fades, the gift of your caring, sharing infuse someone lifting them up & they come a’calling. Such an audacious gift, to be enJOYed, that will continue to glow forever and ever,amen.

Be mindful of saying thank you or you’re welcomed

And I thank you…

And you are indeed welcome, Sister artist Janitha Richards of New Orleans.

JHM All rights reserved ©09

When it is no longer Golden ©08

Cassia fistula -Golden Shower

I think we've all have had it happen at one time or another of someone or something that is absolutely bent on making you, the next door neighbor, the shoe shine man and anyone they come in contact with as miserable and shallow as they are.

You try forebearance, patience, humor, understanding, a dollop more of patience/compassion/humor, but their point is only to fill themselves up. And what they want to fill themselves up with is nothing they can get from you.

Or anyone else.

Their actions aren't from orignal thought, they have turn almost into an art form a manipulation, near parasitic urges to have what they could have all along if they had only looked inside themselves and work hard toward it.

But unfortuantely there is almost a spiritual laziness, looking for the easy out instead of good hard work. Its a laziness borne of hunger, spiritual malaise from being malnourished, too weak, so they think, to do something to restore themselves in a healthy way though unfortunately sometimes they do not get it until it is too late to be resurrected.

So what is one to do when one of these leech types threaten to suck the marrow out of their host?
There those times when you need to say clearly, enphatically & succintly to back off. There is no guarentee that they will, but you are setting a boundary in how far you will go to tolerate bad behavior. What you do after that depends greatly on the circumstance, your temperment and how willing you are to go.

But make note that many of these types of people are like a tree I understand is home to India called in its folk name "Golden Shower" It is a magnificent tree to look at with beautiful flowers blooming in abundance. But the Golden Shower trees is highly invasive and parasitic and once it takes root it is near impossible to eradicate. It will overgrow, smother any other plant that has the misfortune to be anywhere near, depriving the other plants of nutrients, water, sunlight and the ability to grow and prosper.

There are people that are like the Golden Shower tree. They will come along looking for a host to carry it to its next destination and once they get their roots growing they will invade until the other person figuratively die. That is if you let it or them suck the very air out of you. Remember it is necessary for them to have something to hold onto for life and energy and they will do whatever is necessary to grasp and hold on. Their very life in their eyes depends on it.

Unlike the Golden Shower Tree, these parasitic types can be uprooted and especially if you recognize it before it goes too far. I would suspect the majority of the times people who are invasive like this are not evil people. By no shape are they. The majority of the time they are very scared, lonely people who had another golden shower-like person to deprive them of necessary nutrients, water, air, light and the ability to grow. So they become stagnant, or dormant or stunted and truly on some level really do believe they can do it on their own.

And while you can have compassion for them, they are not a tree with no conscious thought or for that matter a conscience. They absolutely do have the ability to uproot and move out of the way so they can indeed grow. Unfortunatley they do not believe it and continue what they know.

So how far you go to grow and not allow them to suffocate you depends greatly on how or what they are doing matters to you. We all have to choose our battles and some things are far more important and outweigh any need to comtinue with them.

And then there are those times you have to make your position perfectly clear whether they heed it or not. Because it isn't for them, your stating your position. It is for you because one way or another they will move on, invade somewhere else until there is not left to suck dry.

Then in the end they are still what they had always feared the most.

The will be alone with themselves

And that is not cool

All rights servedJHM6-9-08©