For all you People Pleasers

For all you people pleasers who have forgotten who you are – I hear you. I’ve recently been aware of my bend toward people pleasing – it has cost me: my fun, my freedom, my joy, and my color. People pleasing is a dull dull existence. I’ve been on a BIG a Fearless Painting Adventure for 6 weeks now and wanted to share some of the recapturing of myself I have been doing.

So this month some of the friendships, habits and dreams I have been feeding – pouring energy into – have turned into weeds instead of the beautiful things I had hoped. Honestly it has brought me to my knees – wondering why . The baby I believe is me… the me I need to connect with again and protect. I’m in a tender  season of setting boundaries…and I’m trying to experience the pain with out loosing it.

Then one of my fellow fearless painters in the workshop made me aware of this beautiful poem by Mary Oliver – THANK you Christine G. for sending it my way!

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice –
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.

“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.

You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.

It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.

But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do –
determined to save
the only life you could save.

by Mary Oliver

Start your BIG Fearless Painting Adventure…

Tags: BIG, Dirty Footprints, Fearless, Painting