Dr. Amber Grooves really nailed it! Comparing ourselves to others is a way of criticizing ourselves, when we each are a different "flower" in this world. Recently I found myself just doing that. I had received a Master of fine Arts degree in Painting and Drawing in 1976. Then I went four years later back to school to obtain a Masters Degree in Art Therapy in 1982. To make a long story short I got reacquainted with a friend of mine, Dan, who was a graduate of the first MFA program I was in. He has continued to dive deep as an artist, and has successfully sold many paintings in the Unites States. A year ago when I saw him, I envied him for sticking to becoming an artist who sold his work. I realize now that though I am 73 years old and have some paintings completed, I am equally as talented as he is. And I did have a productive career as an art therapist and then as a counselor. Now that I am retired I will strive to go to galleries when I get a about eight paintings completed, I will work on selling them. In my career as a counselor, people have shown me that they are each their own "flower", even if they may only partially know that is true. I tried to encourage them any way I could to see their own unique beauty as a unique soul - flower. So, the one path I would like to have now is to continue to express myself artistically, meditate, and be less critical of myself and others.
Dr. Amber Grooves really nailed it! Comparing ourselves to others is a way of criticizing ourselves, when we each are a different "flower" in this world. Recently I found myself just doing that. I had received a Master of fine Arts degree in Painting and Drawing in 1976. Then I went four years later back to school to obtain a Masters Degree in Art Therapy in 1982. To make a long story short I got reacquainted with a friend of mine, Dan, who was a graduate of the first MFA program I was in. He has continued to dive deep as an artist, and has successfully sold many paintings in the Unites States. A year ago when I saw him, I envied him for sticking to becoming an artist who sold his work. I realize now that though I am 73 years old and have some paintings completed, I am equally as talented as he is. And I did have a productive career as an art therapist and then as a counselor. Now that I am retired I will strive to go to galleries when I get a about eight paintings completed, I will work on selling them. In my career as a counselor, people have shown me that they are each their own "flower", even if they may only partially know that is true. I tried to encourage them any way I could to see their own unique beauty as a unique soul - flower. So, the one path I would like to have now is to continue to express myself artistically, meditate, and be less critical of myself and others.
Thought provoking and a good lesson on looking back, not at mistakes but at how much better life is now in many ways.