Yesterday I wrote about finding what you love to do passionately, and the fact that if you find this, it can translate into work, which will then hopefully not even feel like work at all, since you love it so much, it will just feel like bliss. (How is that for a run on sentence.) Someone then asked "how to discern what it is that you love to do"?
It is a process. However, firstly you have to start by doing what you love to do with NO THOUGHT OF MONEY AT ALL. For instance, I LOVE TO WRITE AND GET REAL MAIL. SO SO MUCH. Therefore, I started PROJECT LETTER 365 this year, and I am writing at least one real piece of mail per day, to people that I know and do not know as well. The photo above was taken in the Netherlands, when I got to visit my dear friend Irene and her lovely family this summer. This is the pile of mail I sent from that leg of my summer travels.
I do not know where this project will go, but so far it has yielded connections with different artists all over the world whom I have written to. One is Indian and her name is Manjari, and I KNOW that we will collaborate one day in the future, as she is also an artist and I love her work. I am visualizing meeting and visiting her, and her coming to see me as well. ( I even posted a photo of my cozy guest room on facebook for her, so she can picture herself here as well.) I am going to start researching grants for artists and try to find some money to make a cross cultural art exchange a reality with her in India. I am doing what I love while at the same time visualizing and dreaming of future projects that I will get funding for. What I love will become a professional endeavor as a result.
So...choose a simple thing that you love and do it deliberately, often, and for no other reason that YOU LOVE TO DO IT. Oh, and write me a letter while you are at it.
Cynthia Thomasset
Studio 304, GoggleWorks
201 Washington Street
Reading PA 19601
Cynthia - this is a great article and great advice. I think that we discount things that we enjoy and do not try to do anything with our God-given talents and joys. I hope your endeavor is successful. I happen to love OLD MOVIES and all the stars that are in them. My father gave me this love and I can name most movie stars in a heartbeat and know something about them. Don't know if I will ever do anything with this, maybe start a blog. Perhaps you have provided some inspiration here.
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