Taking life one fold at a time

The past couple of months have been hectic. I took part in an exhibition at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, built a website, created space and started art workshops at my home, helped my son start his own business, prepared for exhibitions at two markets, had the flu twice, and kept myself busy with many other smaller projects. I was so busy that a whole month went by without adding color to canvas. In fact, I was so busy that I did not even notice that I had seven subscribers to my newsletter. I apologize!

Life is ever unfolding. I am trying to take it one fold at a time, but most often I find myself rushing through the folds even trying to force the process of unfolding to take place just a little faster. This is never a good idea. 

I thought that I would share one unfolding moment I experienced during this time. It happened at the exhibition in the Voortrekker Monument.

I spent a lot of time and money preparing for this particular event. The exhibition itself took a lot of time, money and effort. Of course, when you attend an event like this, your dreams and expectations are to make some art sales. 

I decided to take along a small A5 watercolor book and some pens to keep myself busy during the quiet spells. 

On the second day I decided to sit at my table and make a drawing of the monument. Emmie, one of my fellow exhibitors, came over and offered me some watercolors to add color to my work. I was sitting, sketching, painting and not paying much attention to what was happening around me. 

Two hours later I was finishing my painting and took out my phone to take a picture of my work. “Are you done?” I looked up and there was a man standing in front of my table. He explained that he was there earlier when I started my drawing, and asked if he could have a look at the finished painting. He was amazed by my simple sketch, waved at his wife to come and have a look, and ended up buying this humble work that I threw together to keep me busy.

The moral of the story: Here I was with thousands of Rands worth of paintings which I took months to paint, at an exhibition that cost me thousands to attend, but when life unfolded, I sold the simple sketch I made in a moment. That was the only sale I made.

I know we need to plan ahead, but so many of our plans never play out the way we imagined it. When life unfolds most often what lies in front of us is unexpected, not by any means what we planned for. 

So, maybe we should be more in the moment, taking life one fold at a time, adding color to what is in front of us. Rather than deciding ahead of time what color life should be, we can add color to life that matches the moment.