Do you ever have those days when you need a lift?
You get up and it’s gray and raining. You’re eyes still have a sleepy glaze on them and there’s no sharp focus. Your body creaks a bit like the floorboards under your feet as you head out the door.
Another day and it’s starting on a most uninspired note.
But, luckily for me, my job has certain perks.
In the studio, I flip on the computer and check my e-mail and there’s a note from a couple in Erie who had just obtained two of the paintings I had dropped off at the Kada Gallery on Thursday. They wrote how they were drawn to the serenity of the pieces.
My day suddenly changed.
What other job allows you to go from feeling tired and insignificant one moment and inspired and making a difference the next? Over the years, the comments and notes I have received from those who are attracted to my work have served to constantly bolster my spirits and have provided the sense of another set of eyes looking over my shoulder when I paint. They provide inspiration beyond anything the folks who send me these notes could imagine.
It’s one of those things that make me stop in my tracks and pinch myself just to make sure this good fortune isn’t merely a dream. So far, I’m wide awake and black and blue from all the pinching.
Seeing how much I gather inspiration from such gestures I can only wish that everyone could get the same in their jobs, their careers, their lives. It saddens me that so many people never hear words of appreciation from those they serve. Most take this for granted. But wouldn’t it be a better place, a more hospitable world, if we all were told when we were doing a nice job? Wouldn’t we all strive to do better then?
It’s funny how we hold onto compliments or expressions of appreciation so often like they were rare coins, so few and so valuable that they should never leave our hands.
It’s been my experience that there is a kind of karmic return for those who express their true appreciation to others, who spend their coins of gratitude with generosity. They find that their purse of gratitude never runs low and is constantly refilled by those around them.
So, get out there and spend some of your old rusty compliments. It’s a good investment.
Redtree Times 