The Journey to the Impossible

New work in the shop!

 Tomorrow is my deadline to submit my book manuscript....can you believe that?  I can hardly believe after months and months and MONTHS of work, the time has come to hand over the project in entirety to be beautified and completed by the editors and design team, all of whom have already been working along side of me in countless ways as we birth this project from inception to publication.    I'm so excited for this 'child' of mine to be released out into the world, but that will come many more months down the road. If all things going smoothly, we should see the release date in the latter part of 2016.   The experience has really pushed me to be higher limits than I ever thought were possible.  I already push myself pretty  heartily, how could one project exceed those limits?  Try writing a book and you will understand!  It's a labor of love for sure, and one that I am so proud of and hope that you will enjoy when the time comes.

One of the reasons I felt stretched beyond my limits was  that the timeline to write the book and produce the work wasn't ideal for me and my schedule.  It all started to unfold during perhaps one of my busiest travel seasons yet and during a time I also moved into a new studio, had a solo show, and spent almost a month out of commission with the flu. 

Yet, despite my own personal challenges, is there ever a right time to do something that is going to push us to our limits?  We can find excuse after excuse to not do something while at the same time, if we put energy into seeing how we can make it happen rather than just saying it's not the right time, you'd be amazed at what you can do.  

There were times when I thought all of this was impossible for me to accomplish.  Tears would flow and I'd become paralyzed with self-doubt.

There also would be times when I was in the flow and creating pieces for the book and  companion pieces for future collections that I would dance with joy from the fruits of my labor.  

Like most things I do, I take the project to the next level...I created so many pieces and many much larger than needed for the book, I could probably write 3 books.haha...but to me, it was necessary to experiment and try new things before I made final decisions on what to use for exercises in the book.  We don't know what we don't know, right?

Now, it's the day before the due date.  I sit here with a great sense of accomplishment, and bit of emotional release that this day is almost here.   Looking back at my journey to get to this place and time, I would never have thought I'd be where I am today.  I think that is the point.   Don't limit yourself to the possible, rather expand your world to the impossible. There's such a fine line between both states of being, why not reach higher and go farther than you imagine could be?

I want to give a huge nod to my editor Beth Erikson who has been the rock behind this whole project, keeping me in line, offering advice, soothing my fears, and urging me a long. Thank you for all you have done.  Thank you also to the acquiring editor, Tonia Jenny for nudging me to take this leap and for allowing me first to have this opportunity. My gratitude is wide and deeply felt for your belief in me!   There's so many people behind the scenes at F & W Media who have made this project come to life, I think you all for working so hard to create beautiful books and various artistic material, you do so much for the artistic community that you don't even realize!

Lastly, thank you all for your heartfelt comments to my previous blog post. Wow...amazing reactions and such love and support I felt from all of you. That story is such a small but yet poignant part of my life, it doesn't truly tell all of what has gone on, especially in my formative years, but it does let you know that we all have stories to share, ones of resilience and accomplishments,  fear and self doubt, love and rejection, and triumph over sorrow.     The story doesn't really tell you how my beloved Mother gave me more strength and will power to not just survive, but to thrive, not just back then but to this day.  It also doesn't discuss that I was adopted by the man I call my father when I was three, so even though my biological father didn't want to open the adoption and relationship back up, I did have a male figure in my world during those early years and remains part of my life today.  There's always more to the story but I wanted to add those points in as I felt I didn't do justice to just how amazing the role my Mother played in my survival after the accident and how much inspiration she is to me to this day and forever will be.

Jodi:)