Out of my comfort zone!

I was listening, on Friday, to a program called Awakened Wealth. Our fearless leader announced, with a straight face, that, “Stepping out of our comfort zone is the key to abundance!”

It’s too early yet to know where all that is leading but I think the guy may be some kind of crystal ball predictor of the future because I’ve had a whole lot of “out of my comfort zone” going on ever since I heard that.

And, yes, I can think of several reasons why that might be true.

I said, “yes!” to an opportunity to be interviewed by a creativity sister and I’m declining to be terrified! One of the things we’re going to chat about is the program I’ve been hatching for three years which is likely to become real sometime later this summer. It’s called Grammy Camp! I’m waaaayyy past excited!

Then, there are some more new friends. One is the painting I’m doing, glimpsed above, which features an image of the late Congressman John Lewis. John is becoming a friend, instead of simply a mythical inspiration, as I paint over and swear and paint over some more.

As I’ve mentioned, I am not a portrait painter!

I am, however, a pretty decent notice-r and wonder-r. For example, as I’m still not real comfortable with the out and about bit, I’ve been noticing the details of black and brown skin tones on TV. CNN is especially helpful for this.

Being, by nature, more tuned to words than images, I seem to have spent more time listening to what the folks on TV were saying than I did studying their facial features. But, learning happens everywhere we let it and, at the very least, I have new things to try.

And I’m wondering how I’ve gotten this far with faces painted purple and blue. (Don’t laugh. It works!)

It has never been my plan to be a realist. (Well, not with paint.)

But, we’re making progress, John and I. I know two people who have actually looked at my painting-in-progress and recognized him!

Then, today, I made another new friend.

I was sitting at my easel in the studio which has a big window facing out to our garden. And the front porch.

A young black man in an Amazon vest arrived and flung a (blessedly unbreakable) package at the door. I acknowledged the thump with a wave.

Then my visitor was back, just outside the window, pointing at my painting, grinning and doing a thumbs up dance.

Suddenly, I suspect, we became real people. And it felt like something we could all use a lot more of!

Back to the canvas. I’m currently sketching in the Capitol dome. Rough sketching. And John has decided he wants cherry blossoms!

I’m thrilled. Lots more of my favorite kind of prayer dots… the ones I make with a fingertip.

By the time you read this, I will have taught some more new friends at Envoys for Humanity about the magic of prayer dots. (Or, Dots of Hope.) And, if Phoebe has anything to say about it, she’ll have made a bunch more friends, too.

Luther finds Zoom more challenging than he used to and will no doubt nap during the dot-fest.

Here’s our question for you…

Where are you going out of your comfort zone to make new friends? I’d love to hear! If you click on John’s photo at the top of this post and scroll way on down past these words, there’s a place to leave a comment.

ps… if you do wander from your comfort zone, making new friends, you’re pretty much guaranteed some abundance of spirit. Maybe, just maybe, some of the other kind, too.

pps… the intention for the painting of Congressman Lewis, which you can see glimpses of in the blue sky, was a quote of his: We may not have chosen the time but the time has chosen us. Let’s be Good Trouble!