2011 gave me some challenges, health wise and personal. My health took a beating around September and spiraled downward. I deal with Hashimoto's, which is a thyroid condition. It also gives me other problems like IBS, food sensitivity, achy joints, compromised immune system. Yeah, it's not fun, granted I take medication but a simple cold can throw it all off. Which is what happened to me in September, I got a cold that put me in bed for two weeks. It messed with my thyroid and it's been a roller coaster ride ever since. There was a trip to the emergency room which yielded nothing more than bruises up and down my arms from needles. I had to wear a heart monitor, go for an echo cardiogram both of which showed no problems with my heart. It's just the rest of my body that refuses to work. But low and behold at the end of the year I ended up with medical insurance which is a goddess-send! Seriously, I can actually go to a doctor and go for an eye exam which I have been in bad need of.
On the personal side, I found myself unemployed, again, right before the holidays. That was a tough pill to swallow considering I was very good at what I did and had an entire office that supported me. Unfortunately the ass hat that was my boss wanted a degree for the job. Really??? Ummmm, yeah, really. There tears shed, and then I realized that it wasn't my fault. It was their loss, not mine. I proved above and beyond that I wanted to work there and that I was capable of doing the job. I took it as I did what needed to be done there and there was nothing left for me to do. My time had come and I needed to do what was right for me in the end. So, I opened my little shop on Etsy and Tribe Zen Creations was born. I plan on opening up a second line of jewelry in the new year that is different from Tribe Zen. Right now I am going to re-do pictures and get the shop updated and looking new.
Spiritually it was an interesting ride in 2011. I left a group that I had been working with right before I would have taken my dedication. The high priestess was making it quite clear that she did not like me and that I was no longer wanted around the group. She was my original teacher and honestly she really didn't teach much. She was ignorant in a lot of ways now that I look back, she really had no clue about how other spiritual beliefs worked. The parting was not mourned, the labels were gone and I was free from her dogma. Of course that left me with a whole lot of "where do I go from here" setting in. So I did the only thing I could do: decided I was a spiritual fool at heart and combined my Buddhism beliefs and Pagan beliefs. It will be a while before I join another group, I need this time to be on my own. I recently joined ADF again and will probably go through their Dedicant program this year. Of course this parting is what gave me the inspiration to do my 365 Day Spiritual Practice Challenge which starts on January 1st!
With all of this upheaval and family drama that is not worth taking up precious space here, I have gone back to art and learning to work with mixed media. Making jewelry is always going to be a creative outlet for me, but there is something about paint, paper, gel medium, collage and all that good stuff that helps spiritually and mentally. I have joined up on "Book of Days" which is going to be fabulous and I am very excited to be taking part. I also joined "52 Playdates" which is going to be fun. I can't do "Life Book" simply because money is too tight right now. I have joined some awesome art groups on Facebook and I am meeting all kinds of wonderful mixed media artists that hopefully I can learn from. Art wise it is going to be a stellar year.
No comments:
Post a Comment