Thank You, Thank You, And Thank You

Day; 8, cold, mostly sunny. Socked in over the Jemez to the west. Temperature on outside kiln; 19 degrees

Trying to get the studio warm enough this morning so that I actually want to be in there and plunge my hands into cold pot-throwing water…..Another wheel-barrow full of wood and a rather large and hot fire and I am all set.

I stand and collect myself, just breathing. And all I can really feel is grateful, really, really, grateful. Thank you Rudi Vrba for the  reminder that I have everything,  that I lack for absolutely nothing. I can’t seem to get you out of my mind and have trouble getting going this morning. I am also  tired  after staying up late and reading into the wee hours of the night.  I really wanted to finish Rudolph Vrba’s book, ” I Escaped From Auschiwitz”, so pushed late into the very early morning hours to do so.

I don’t know if it is due to  just seeing the movie “Unbroken” or the family history of  my father’s 35 missions over Nazi Germany, but I am slowly working my way through the WWII section of the local library. This past week I found Rudi Vrba’s  unbelievable account and it has made me into a late-blooming  gratitude devotee. I hadn’t realized anyone actually survived that hell-hole, not to mention escaped,  and I just assumed that everyone who ended up there was gassed.  Not so. Two long nights of reading later,  I am forever changed. If his story doesn’t  touch me, nothing will and there is no hope for me…

So, from the deepest place in my heart Rudi and in your name, here is what I am grateful for (not necessarily in any particular order);

*my wonderful studio and home
*working for myself with  the time to create day in and day out….
*my education
* my talented and very giving musician-husband
*the 4 huskies that share my studio space
*my family and friends that support and encourage me in my career specifically and in life generally
*my perfectly good, reasonably healthy 57-year old body
*my community of like-minded crazy artists
*the “girls” that I sing and play music with every Wednesday morning
*this amazing high desert environment that I live in with very clean clear air, surrounded my mountains
May I  remember this list every morning as  I step into the studio……

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