life

Find Joy in the Journey

/ Jodi / 31 Comments

Find Joy in the Journey

I woke up at 5 a.m. Saturday morning.  Oh how I love when that happens!  Waking up without an alarm on a day off means more hours to enjoy the day off!

I felt the muse.  I wanted to paint.  The same sweet lady who asked for a painting for the new cardiologist also wanted a painting for a new geriatrician.

I worked for over a dozen years for a home health and hospice company, so I have a special place in my heart for the elderly and also the end of life journey.

I had a vision for what I wanted to paint.  I wanted to paint an elderly couple embracing and enjoying the journey at end of life.

I like to paint a bit more impressionistic and abstract, though, so how to portray in a way that a new doctor entering this “journey” might appreciate?

This is what I came up with.  I just wasn’t sure about it though.  I sat on it for a few hours before sending a picture of it to the person who commissioned it.  I told her I would understand if it was not what she had in mind and told her it was very different from the heart one I did previously, so I would understand if she didn’t want it and would just like a flower or something completely different…

Turns out she loved it, so off to its new home this one went.

I hope it will bring joy to the recipient as she enters her new journey caring for people at the journey at end of life.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

#WorldWatercolorMonth is only days away!  July 2020!  Join the fun!

This New Day

/ Jodi / 23 Comments

January Sunrise – Invitation of Hope – Wexford, PA 1/9/2020 – Jodi McKinney

This New Day.

Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day.
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Collected Poems and Translations

This new day is too dear!

Too dear to not be grateful.
Too dear to wallow in negative energy.
Too dear to not see the beauty.
Too dear to not be joyful and kind and loving.
Too dear to be hard on ourselves.

This new day is too dear to waste!

May you own this day…
and all your days…
as the invitation of hope it is.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

After the Rain

/ Jodi / 28 Comments

After the Rain.

After the rain,
we walked at the park.

The grass was greener,
the air was fresh and clean.

The sun warmed,
and the blossoming trees popped

almost as if they were
smiling with the joy they knew I felt.

My heart swelled a wee bit more
like it so often does

in moments spent
with my grandie girls.

Mommy told Grandie Girl 1
about the time she spent playing ball on this field,

and asked her if she thought she
would want to do the same some day.

The sweet, high-pitched voice
in the miniature, but too-fast growing body,

responded so excitedly
and affirmatively

like she most always does,
wanting to be just like mommy.

And I smile at both of them with their muddy shoes
from the stop we made along the walk to float dandelions in the creek.

I steal a glance at Grandie Girl 2,
who is grinning and squealing with delight

as if to affirm her agreement
and wanting to be just like her big sister.

These are the moments…
the sweet precious moments.

After the rain.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

An Enthusiast in Life

/ Jodi / 46 Comments
Spring Floral Fantasy Watercolor 11×14

An Enthusiast in Life.

I LOVE this quote by Roald Dahl, and it sparked my enthusiasm to paint boldly and brightly and enthusiastically in watercolor recently.

“Listening to my father during those early years, I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good, either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.”

Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald

I feel a bit out of practice as I’ve been doing other projects lately, but it was fun to splash watercolor again.

My daughter-in-law, Colleen and I are enthusiastically embracing a new project, which I’ll update you on as we go, but we are expanding our McKinneyX2Designs space at the local gift shop where we display our products, Berry Vine Gifts in Bradford Woods.

For today, however, I hope you will consider this quote, and enthusiastically embrace whatever YOU are passionate about!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi