Three days to go

I've managed to accumulate gobs of papers and booklets to assist me in my departure to London. Today I sorted through them, weeding out the ones that I'd used and no longer needed or that haven't proven to be useful at all. Many of the items have checklists in them and it seems the Three Day mark is a key one.

This is when you start packing. Really packing.

Thanks to me ever-so wonderful parents, I've two immense suitcases into which I'm fitting my possessions. Over the past six months I have held several purges, able to reduce what I own by more than half, I'm sure. I've rid myself of things I held onto simply because 'you never know'. I don't have room for 'you never know' in two suitcases and in light of the Carry-On rules (my flight jumps through Chicago to Heathrow.) to the States I'm even more limited.

As I began packing my art supplies yesterday I found myself choosing to leave behind things I wouldn't have questioned bringing before. There is a practicality to bringing a lot of it. Generally I'm not going to have a large amount of disposable income when I first arrive. I have hundreds of dollars worth of art supplies that I'd rather not have to start fresh with accumulating. But as I sort through and find things I thought I couldn't bear to be without, I continue to reflect on where I'm going.

I would always much rather have a memory and an experience than to have a thing.

This move has been a lesson in discipline and for that I am most grateful. I appreciate that which is useful or I find to be lovely, to paraphrase William Morris. Of course, in that I love my artwork, it could be difficult to part with it, but having sold an original piece I am suddenly able to see how that spurs on further creation. The overwhelming response to 'Without Limits' has made me realise that I was right to stick with painting as the focus of my art career and that the influence of my Buddha nature is appreciated by many.

Three days is too far away to think about yet, but soon I will be in London and when I am, I plan to buy a canvas as soon as possible so I can keep being this incredible artist I always wanted to be.