Happy Dances Along The Way

Twenty days ago,

I wrapped up this package

with this art piece:

and I wrapped up this package

with this art piece:

and shipped them off with an application

for the South Dakota Governor's Conference on Tourism.

A few days ago,

I got this letter:

YAHOO! Happy Dance!

I am so excited!

Made In South Dakota

means so much to me because

it is all about my heart

for blooming where you are planted,

for savoring right where you are right now,

for becoming fascinated with the ordinary,

for enjoying the little things.

It is about LOVING and EMBRACING and HONORING

where God has planted me.

That is on the prairie of South Dakota

with my husband Jim

~ a man of good, well-rounded character. ~

He is strong, hard-working, faithful, athletic, smart,

patient, kind and loves to play and eat candy.

My art honors this life that we have together with our family.

Here.

In this place.

Thank you for celebrating with me!

 Taking a journey that you REALLY want to work out is so scary, 

because it really is putting your heart out there on the line.  

And wondering . . . wondering about so much.

Will this work?

Will anybody even be interested?

Is this valuable?

Is this worth anything?

Is this worth my time?

Will I be laughed at?

Will anybody take me seriously?

Is it possible to actually make a business doing something I enjoy

and believe it?

Should my work involve my heart and my spiritual life?

Will people accept that?  Will they embrace it?

And what I am still learning,

is that it is better to be who I am

and take scary-brave steps,

yet WHOLEHEARTED steps,

instead of half-hearted ones,

in the direction that you want to go,

and even struggle and fail sometimes.

It is better than pretending to be someone

you are not.

It is better than trying to prove your worth

through things that you think the world will be impressed with.

Please, please , please be who YOU really are . . . 

the person that perhaps you are afraid to be 

because it will mean sticking your neck out there.

And also, please, please, please, be kind to yourself.

No shaming where you are not,

because of where you think you ought

to

be.

I spent many years beating myself up in my mind

about who I thought I was

and about who I thought I ought to be.

Instead of letting myself really follow the things I loved and enjoyed.

And seeing that I was a person of value

because first and foremost,

I was and am a child of God.

God's grace changed that.

And continues to change that

day. to. day.

We struggle.  We fail.

Because that is life in this broken world.

But it is so much better

to work at something I believe in,

that I live to share,

that I want my kids to know and hear from me,

instead of keeping it inside.

It's not just about the artwork.

It's about the life I am living.

It is about the message that continues

to burn within me to share.

That comes out

in writing

in photography

and in bursts of color

or getting to speak to a group of girls or women

telling stories.

I don't know how to express how much it means to me

that you are celebrating with me in this!

SO MANY people have encouraged me along this journey

that I continue to take.

My neighbor and friend, Ann B., said to me the other day,

"We all need an 'Atta-girl!' sometimes."

She has been one of those atta-girl encouragers.

All those "Atta-girl"'s have kept me going!

Lots of exciting this are happening all at once here.

Including this book put together by Renee Rongen

titled Fundamentally Female:

I had a request through my Etsy store

to submit my artwork for an upcoming book project.

I checked out Renee's videos

and loved her motivational talks.

Loved that she was from the Minnesota ~ Dakota areas

and had spoken to rural women.

So I sent in a submission in the month of May.

May is crazy-busy for all of us with kids in school

and double so with cattle-ranch life.

So I kind-of forgot about it until I received this

sparkly red package last week with this letter:

My art takes up an itty-bitty space on page 80 of about 1x3 inches.

But still . . . 

HOW COOL IS THAT???

It is a wonderful book about 

the complexities and beauty and humor and faith

of women.

No matter how tiny my part is in this book,

I am proud to be included!

The last couple of months

have held some exciting moments for me.

Know that it has been a LONG journey to this point.

Even before I started creating art,

I was scrapbooking.

The scrapbooking that I did changed from

recording birthdays and holidays

to everyday struggles and questions

along with breakthroughs and lessons learned, 

and questions I was working through,

as well as celebrations and new fascinations.

That journey that I recorded is what led to the art that I am doing now.

Before the transition in my scrapbooking,

there was a period of a few years where I was in

what I call the cocoon stage...

where it looked like NOTHING was happening,

but BIG CHANGE was happening within me.

You can read about the

caterpillar,

the cocoon,

and the growing wings

here:

Why Butterflies Are Such  A Big Deal To Me.

{One of my first collage paintings.  Now owned by Kendra Sandal.}

All of that happened to me

several years ago.

Lots of time

in a cocoon.

Growing.

Changing.

To get to here.

Still growing.  Still changing.

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All images property of Jodene Shaw.

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Fundamentally Female is a registered TradeMark and can be found here:

http://www.fundamentallyfemale.com/

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