Every Hardship An Opportunity

I have a new mantra this year. Every hardship is an opportunity. I found an image of the Chicago fire for this blog because it was a extreme hardship that leveled this great city and allowed it to be rebuilt to a tremendous new standard that now has some of the most beautiful buildings of any modern city in the world. I also chose the Chicago fire because I am writing this blog at Union Station in Chicago tonight waiting on the Pier Marquette train that will take me back to Grand Rapids Michigan the last leg of my long journey home from Munich Germany. I had an amazing time in painting in the streets of the medieval city of Landshut. I met cool people and my luggage contains six paintings that are going to friends that paid $200 to have a painting done in Bavaria. All this is really cool but also last Tuesday, in the last week of my three week tour, I found out some news that at another time in my life I would have said it was “bad news”. Now I am calling it a great opportunity to grow. A hardship yes, bad no!

I think that how we choose to frame life situations makes all the difference in the world. When I was ten my mother died in her sleep. One day I had a mother and the next day I didn’t. This has become a powerful reference point in my life because I can look back and see so many really important good things that came into my life because of this tragic alteration in my early life. I once again remind myself of this tonight as I begin to work through what is sure to be on more powerful transformation in my life and my artistic practice.