KALEIDOSCOPE EYES

 art by Julia Ockert

tapestries and prayer flags in my home

 Picture yourself on a boat in a river 

 With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she's gone

 ...And just like that (snaps fingers), my website that I have had for many, many years is gone! Including my email address that was attached to it. I have been immersed into a world of dementia with someone very close to me. I have spent so much time and attention making sure that everything was taken care of for someone else that I have neglected to take care of some of my own affairs. So, it looks like the Universe has helped me downsize and start over. Of course, it will take some time to get the new site up and running, as I will be starting from scratch and still cannot escape my responsibilities of care giving. It will only be possible to set up my website and maintain it a little at a time, unlike years prior, when I was able to paint all day and night, work on my website, respond to emails and attend events, engage in social activities and live much more freely when it came to time and commitments. 

Everything is ever-changing and there is no permanence in life. These "daze" my life has been lived completely in the moment. I am definitely experiencing going with the flow more than ever.

It has been nearly impossible to run two households and be on call for every whim or demand of another person. The things that have been neglected are all on my side of things. My home, my social life, my health, etc. have all suffered. I have had a really difficult time balancing it all. But, I am ready to put one foot in front of the other and get my life back into some kind of order. I have to. I have to take care of myself. So, I have hired more help. I have to PAINT! So, I have hired more help. I have the coolest, hippie chick marketing and making all of the Coloring Books For Flower Children. It helps me a great deal and it helps her to remain a stay at home mom. It also makes it possible to keep the books available to the folks who want them. I have to spend more time in my own home. So, you guessed it, I hired more help! I have been more able to have extended amounts of time at home so I can actually accomplish things and maintain my home and gardens.

Since there is absolutely nothing that I can do to recover my website or domain name, I am forced to accept it. All of my business cards and contact info will have to be replaced and everything that has been registered with my old email address has to be changed. There is no way that I will remember everything, so I will just figure it all out as I go along, I suppose.

If there is one thing that I have learned in life, it is that there is  

"nothing to get hung about"

 Life has been pretty trippy, to say the least. I often feel like I am living in a strange dream. "What a long, strange trip it's been!"