I usually try to share wisdom in my blog. But today… thought I’d share my stupidity instead.
So…here goes…
Last week, I blogged about my recent West Coast Art Tour and lessons I learned. Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.
But…I left out one particularly embarrassing detail
I’ll preface this by saying that it probably won’t shock you to hear that traveling for two weeks with a four year old and twin three year olds isn’t always the easiest thing.
My kids are actually great little travelers, but even on their best day, it still takes a lot of effort to get them mobile…Diapers, stroller, car seats, clothes, toys, books, socks, shoes, snacks, sippy cups, oh and several changes of clothes for every few hours and ketchup and guacamole takes it’s toll.
Last day of the trip, heading home…
We arrived at LAX. Chelsea had to return the rental car, so she dropped me off with our three kids to get check-in done.
I had all of our normal piles & piles of kid stuff with me. I also had all the boxes of art supplies and merch from my art tour. I also had my newest painting from the day before rolled up nicely in a tube.
We took up the entire sidewalk and Chelsea drove off…and of course curbside check-in was closed. Ugh.
I found an airline employee to help me bring everything and everyone in. Chaos. But, I finally got our bags and boxes piled up and the kids in sight. I checked us in and was crushing this traveling Dad thing.
Chelsea met back up with us after I took all three kids to the family bathroom first. Summer sang while sitting on the potty and the boys unravelled the toilet paper before proceeding to our gate.
On the move through the terminal, I received a text message on my iPhone from friends in Massachusetts. They saw and loved the live painting that I just finished in Costa Mesa the day before. They wanted to buy it. I told them we could talk soon as we were just about to go through TSA security screening with the children.
Shoes off, devices on the trays, stuff out of pockets, here we go again. With one eye on our stuff and the other on our kids, I was just about to go through the metal detector when I looked down and realized…
I LOST MY ORIGINAL PAINTING!!!!!Â
“Holy crap! I’m so stupid!“, I blurted out Chelsea. I quickly asked the TSA guy what to do and I looped back around to follow my path. It was worth a shot…But it was gone.
The painting…gone.
The money from the sale…gone.
The opportunity to scan the painting and release prints…gone.
My feeling of nausea and stupidity…still fully intact.
After the initial shock and the kicking myself in the ass halted, I took a breath. It was time to put things in perspective.
What good could possibly come from this?
I thought…In in year, will this really matter? Nope. I had the memories, pics from the event and had this nice reminder to accept what is.
I enjoyed the painting while it lasted and maybe that’s good enough.
Nothing is permanent… this too shall pass. Be grateful for what and who ya’ got.
Truth be told, when I got home, I was planning on selling it anyway, so at some point I’d have to part with it anyway. So the outcome didn’t change, just the money and circumstances I associated with it.
I am abundant.
Life is abundant.
Creativity is abundant.
I will make plenty of more paintings.
What else could this mean?
Maybe it was meant to be.
Maybe whomever has the painting really needs it more than I do.
Maybe they’ll sell it and feed their family.
Maybe a celebrity at LAX swiped it and in a week I’ll be famous from this crazy story.
Maybe it got crushed and as someone bent over to pick it up it and that prevented them from getting hit by a bus one minute later.
Life is going to throw you curveballs like this. You can play the victim and have a pity party, or you can find lessons from it and carry on.
