The last blog I wrote, had me wondering what rainbows might mean for me in 2011.
Just as soon as my husband, daughter and I arrived in Breckenridge, COLORADO there stretched across the sky was a HUGE ONE!
My husband had just told me days before, that after almost two years with a SEAFOOD RESTAURANT, that we would be switching over to serving just GOURMET BURGERS when we returned after the holidays back to our Alabama home.
We had given it a go but just couldn't overcome the obstacles involved in coordinating delivery of seafood from so many suppliers in various locations. We had the best ranked crab cake in town (gonna keep that...it'll be the CRABBY PATTY) but even with incredible reviews on our dinners, the price fluctuations due to supply were not letting us keep our prices reasonable.
I do have to say, I had just told my mom, "I am looking forward to going on a trip where Chad doesn't smell like fish everyday."
But I have to say, selfishly, I will miss the constant supply of fresh seared tuna, salmon salads and grouper once a week.
In Breckenridge, I stared at that rainbow, my first greeting (besides sliding smoke followed 18 wheelers attempting to inch down the icy highway towards Vail). My eyes became filled with a promise that EVERYTHING WOULD BE JUST FINE.
I have never been a worrier, and no stranger to change. The first 10 years of my previous marriage, we had moved each and every year to a new house, in four southern towns. I think I had been accustomed to change.
My husband Chad and I have been married 6 years~ going on seven this October. Isn't that when most couples experience an "itch for change" anyway? Thats the average I believe.
How relieved I am that we are making those changes together in a business. We have been in the same home for all six years, except for the year after we got married, to make room for the fourth child. We have put our change into travel, taking in new places, cultures, experiencing artists, food, lifestyles that the "locals" share. You will never catch us at a chain anywhere we go, something our kids are not too fond of. But they have experienced life the way the locals do, at least when they are with us.
Breckenridge was particularly peaceful because we included our 5 year old daughter in this Christmas vacation. She is alone with us every other year, as her siblings, two sisters and an older brother, go to their "other parents" in the even years.
After my rainbow, I searched for the thing that was underneath that glow of bright color...and noticed the artistry that lay all around me, in the mountains, the snow, the quaint villages basked in holiday lights and realized that it might be something creative.
I visited an incredible gallery there, the owner taking me on a tour of each of the artist's work.(Breckenridge Fine Art Gallery on S. Main Street) As I was about to leave, he showed me an artist who would be coming there to do a demonstration, from Russia. At the bottom of my blog, for about two years now, has been a painting of a girl, her head in her hands, I painted it fast, in red, using acrylics. I had always admired one like it in a magazine and decided to give it a try.
Here in front of me was original art by that very artist~Henry Asencio.
And so I stayed in that gallery for what seemed an hour, Ann Kathryn dashing back and forth, swiping mints from the desk, darting out the door with Chad at her heels as she would stomp in the snow. Time stood still as I studied the lighting, the brush strokes of these great artists. A husband wife team~ Michael & Inessa Garmash, who began together by accident, as their two year old had found a brush and created a signature scribble on one of Michael's works in progress. Inessa attempted to correct it and her husband was blown away. They now combine their two styles and create beautiful works together.
This year, I have decided to quit looking so hard for what is at the end of the rainbow and try to focus on the mist of color that I am standing in.
I want to capture the colors and places around me, the abandoned homes that stand on our roadsides, the small details that get overlooked, the places and times that are now.
And hopefully, somewhere, that rainbow will follow and let me know that I am on the right track.
I have been wandering about this year, taking time from devotionals, from our incredible church (except online) and half heartedly got through my daily bible reading.
As of today, I have been back on track...read all 6 days of "bible a day"...and this week I start with some praise and worship music, maybe a Joyce Meyer episode, and try to get my 2011 headed in a direction that is looking more towards the skies and the signs that God is great, powerful and IN CONTROL of my life NOT ME.
He made each of us to be unique, with interests, and talents, and events that were in our lives that can either be sores or be utilized as tools to help us help someone else BREAK FREE.
In 2011, I am praying for you to BREAK FREE and find YOUR rainbow.
Blessings!
Allison
