Life in Seattle: Papayas and Paint (day31-34)

If I'm in danger of spending too much, it's on Seattle's delicious fruit

 ~Greetings from Seattle~

The weather is GORGEOUS here (sorry Oklahoma people, you really should just move) and I am definitely feeling more settled in and becoming more adventurous with discovering the town on my own. Okay, so I miss my family and friends, but I don't doubt for one second that I'm supposed to be here. It's like part of me comes alive just by living and breathing this air.

 My wonderful boss (from my job in Pike's Place) is truly a gift from God. She has so much culture to offer (she and her husband are from China and have lived all over the world) and I couldn't ask for a more loving couple to work for. She "accidentally" bought an extra papaya when shopping one day, and gave it to me at work, thanking me for "taking it off her hands." Ah my dear, how much I'd bet that buying it wasn't an accident... She does little things like this once in awhile, and it completely makes my day. She always asks me how I am doing, if I am liking Seattle so far, and if I'm making friends. Of course she doesn't realize that she IS my best friend in Seattle right now. So we'll make that....

1. Never stop doing little things for people. Buy a papaya for someone you work with, pay for the customer behind you in the coffee shop, mail your friend a hand written letter, send little bits of love to the people around you. After all, you never know- that person could be a girl who just moved across the country to a town without any family or friends there, it could be someone who needed that letter to get her through the day, someone who found hope and love in a box of tinkerbell sandwich bags.

Thanks, Faith

Perhaps the little things are not such little things at all. Perhaps they leave ripples that reach out much further than we imagined.

 I also got to paint faces this weekend as a mini job. It was a ton of fun and it reminded me how much I love to paint. What's funny is that the more I painted kids' faces and hands and arms, more adults started lining up to get painted too! Someone even asked if I had a business card- Ha! Guess we'll call that a success.

Painting makes me happy

 Afterwards, I walked through the market to do some fruit shopping. Several of the vendors commented on my paint hands, and called me a painter. Although I don't consider myself awesome and professional enough to be a painter, I didn't stop them. After all, I love to paint. I just spent part of my day painting for work and money. And I will take any opportunity to paint that I can. And I believe that brings me to....


2. We can be anything we want to be, and more
Who says we have to be defined by one thing? I'm always a little uncertain how to answer people asking me what I do, or who I am. I'm so much more. We all are.
I am what I am, who I choose to be, and anything I try. To what level or extent or how good I am at any of those things is irrelevant, because those things are all perspective and relative, and differ from every single person's opinion.

It also stains your hands

I am a daughter, a sister, a friend, a girlfriend, a niece, a grand-daughter a teacher, a student, an actor, a writer, a painter, a costumer, a dresser, a sales associate, a reader, a musician, a runner, a thinker, a worrier, a cook, a peanut butter/chocolate/fruit connoisseur, an adult, a kid, a believer, a lover of life. I am less than these, and more than these
I am an artist. 

I could never just choose one to be defined as, to be. So I won't. And neither should you. 

And what do I want to be when I grow up? (Although you should know, I'll never completely grow up)

- Happy.

 So to answer those questions- who are you? What do you do? I think I shall say,  "I live."

I hope you have a great start to your week, and that you are being anything you wish and living- because that's what life is all about.

"Ask not what the world needs or who you need to be, but what makes you come alive. Because what the world (and you) needs are people who have come alive."

Painting for HAIR

Some of my work as charge artist for the last show I worked on