The ups and downs of life

Wow...the past 24 hours have been quite the ride.  Really good and not-so-great.  The not-so-great includes watching a troubled man struggle with his internal demons, seeing two baby squirrels fight for their lives and lose, and finding out a friend of ours lost his battle for life yesterday.  In each situation, we were unable to do anything to help.  Talk about feeling inadequate and useless.

And the really good?  I sold a piece of my artwork yesterday.  This piece no longer resides in my collection:

If this looks familiar to you, it should...I featured it in an earlier post.  I showed it to a colleague of mine and he really liked it, so bought it for his wife.  Holy cow!  You could have knocked me down with a feather when he asked if it was for sale.  I felt so elated at the interest he showed for this piece and the others I showed him, and blessed that he liked this one well enough to buy it.  I can't say it enough...holy cow!

So what do these seemingly unrelated events have to do with anything?  They have to do with life, my friends.  Silly, strange, unpredictable, wonderful life.  So, while I have been mourning the troubled part of the past 24 hours and praying for those who are suffering (human and animal), I have also been thanking my lucky stars for the marvelous life I have.  And I am that much more encouraged to continue on the creative path I'm on...and I'll plan to keep including ALL of the experiences I have had into my artwork...the good and the not-so-good.

Sorry for the long post, folks.  It has just been a dramatic 24 hours and I couldn't help but share.

Go out and live, my friends!