follow your peas

okay...ahhhhhh. nice deep breath. whenever i hear the phrase "follow your peace," i think "peas" instead, for a funny visual of a girl walking behind a row of animated green peas. which brings me to my point....or at least headed in that general direction. have you ever misplaced something important? like car keys? or a shoe? you're frantically searching high and low, and inevitably SOMEone says "where did you last see it?" and you want to commit a high felony upon their selves. my friend had a grampa who was constantly misplacing his glasses. and they were always on his head, hooked behind his ears. she'd see him patting his pockets and looking around and she'd say, "grampa...head." and he'd reach for his forehead area and there they were. (her kids grew up calling him "Grampa Head" because they heard that phrase so often they thought it was his name. i had an uncle "sam the garbage," but that's another story). well, my friend Brenda has been the repository of many a frantic late night and early morning, and mid morning and afternoon call. usually they start out with "i don't know what to do....this is huge." after listening to me babble and freak for a while, she will inevitably come up with some incredibly wonderful, logical 1-liner that makes the whole situation shrink down to a manageable size. about 10 years ago, her advise on a particular topic was "follow your peace, Linny." so basically, this whole wednesday off/quit my job, art vs "real" job dilemma came back to following my peace. so...where was the last time i felt the peace? when i decided to take wednesdays off ...period. so that's my decision. till the middle of august anyway. then my vacation time runs out and hopefully by then i'll have a clearer idea of my path. with that relief in my heart and head, i can now enjoy my time. the 1st wednesday was wonderful. i had planned a picnic breakfast in my secret spot by my Lake. unfortunately, Mother Nature planned a major thunderstorm in that very same spot. we compromised and went to Denny's and then i showed mom my dream house (which is now for sale!). i gave her a notebook for her thoughts, and she gave me her heart...as we pulled into the driveway back home, she said she wanted to share her deepest darkest secret wish ...the thing she would do if she could do it all over again. scared that i might laugh or tell her all the reasons it would never have been possible or logical or valid, she rambled through a lengthy preface before getting to the heart of the matter. (sound familiar?). i was so shocked by her wish, that i couldn't think of a thing to say. i would have never guessed. ever ever. never. but it involved work in another country. so i promptly went to Barnes & Noble and bought her a laminated full-color map of the country. tied a bow around it and left it by diva dog's leash. when she saw it the next day, she was thrilled that she had been heard. i mean, who's to say? maybe she is/was needed in that country doing the work she dreamt of? there are plenty of people that "know" me that would be shocked that i worked in radio. or am an artist. or ever found anyone with the patience to be married to me for more than a minute. so far my mother has taught me: don't ever discount other people's dreams, and don't ever ever stop loving them. never. school's out. be blessed. L.