Look Up!

A wise man said, "It is better to look up."  I agree.  I've spent too much time looking down and it is boring there- same old pity party. The last few years have brought some bumps in the road-BIG bumps.  I had "retired early"-actually resigned from my job at the library after 16 years.  I started working when my baby entered kindergarten and quit so I could help with her baby while she finished up her dental hygiene degree.  It wasn't a hard decision--things were going well.  I enjoyed five years of hanging out with my daughter and daughters-in-law,  helping with all the babies that were coming along, and taking too frequent trips to Target.  A grandma's dream.  I didn't want schedules, alarm clocks, or routines. Free at last!  I finally had the time to take those art classes from Del Parson that I had been wanting to...but I didn't, It had been too long, I was afraid to go back and face all of those young minds secretly thinking, "Why is that old lady in this class?"  The same thing I used to think.  But I found out that bumps bring blessings.  I was brought out of retirement.  I had to go back to work, and in order to do that I had to get college credits to renew my teaching certificate.  I signed up for computer classes and every class that Del Parson offered--Life drawing, portrait drawing, pastels, landscape painting and portrait painting.  My love for creating art was rekindled.  Though I had to return to work, now as a preschool teacher for Head Start, I've continued taking classes whenever I can. I did the illustration above for an Adobe Illustrator class taught by the irreverent, but knowledgeable, J Maxfield.