Mining for Gold: A Key to Artful Living

MinerGenevieve

Some days can feel heavy, darker than others. The weight of responsibilities is such that you’d rather not have to walk through them. These types of days can come round every so often, or stay for a season. Even at the holidays, we can experience these weighty days … perhaps even because of the holidays! All the shopping lists, the parties, the gatherings, the family events, missing loved ones who are no longer with us, the travel, the wrapping … add to that just regular ole living and working … well, you get the picture.

It seems there are two ways, no maybe three, that we can move through days like this. One would be, I suppose, to simply pull the covers up over your head and not get out of bed. Typically we don’t do that, even if we’d like to! We muster ourselves out of bed and go through the motions. This second way is just to “endure” it, to move through the days’ to-do’s hunkered down in a numb, mechanical sort-of-way. We call it “survival mode”. And it works. But it’s not very fun.

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The third way takes just a bit of thought before the day begins. Sometimes I imagine myself, down on my hands and knees, pushing through the weeds of life, looking, searching, straining to find something lovely. Other times, I imagine I’m headed into the mines. Yes, it’s dark and cold and sooty. I don my head lamp and coat … ready for the search. And I move through my day looking, searching, straining to see the gold I know is hidden there! Sometimes I find several gold pieces, sometimes only one.  But there is ALWAYS something that shines out among the dim (or seemingly dim) days. It may be a simple, but lovely interaction with someone, or an eye-catching color, or a beautiful comment or quote I find. It can be so many things … if we only look for it!

Does this seem “pollyanna” to you? Perhaps. But it makes a difference in my life.  I’m convinced that no matter how dark or blisteringly busy life can get, there is gold somewhere!  It may not be until later that you can see it. Usually, when I’m in “miner mode”, I see lots of lovelies strewn along my path. And then I sit down at the end of the day and record it in my journal, either sketched or written or both! This is living Artfully!! It’s so encouraging to know that when heavy days hit me, I can look back at other days like it, and see the gold I mined.

May your holidays be Mining Days!

0 thoughts on “Mining for Gold: A Key to Artful Living

  1. Timaree says:

    Oh, I’ve heard the “Pollyanna” bit before, sometimes aimed at me because I don’t want to ALWAYS see the negative side but my feeling is, so what? So what if we want to find the bit of gold in a dim situation. That’s not only living artfully but Christianly! We know there is more than just the bad days and there are some good things to be found in any day. Everyone knows that but you are so right that we have to actively prepare ourselves to look for that bit of joy. I remember after my mom died, we had a picnic! A family picnic a few days after the funeral. Mom loved picnics and family get togethers and we didn’t want the funeral to be the final note before we all flew off to where we were currently stationed with the military (we were all military wives or in the military except for my brother who’d just gotten out but was going back in). It was bittersweet but we found the gold! Gratitude! That’s what the search for the gold is too. We just know that somewhere in the dark our Father has a sign of hope and joy for us so if we look for it instead of wallowing in the murk, we’ll have a better chance of finding it!

    You sure perk up and get my thoughts going. YOU are a spot of gold! Merry Christmas (in case I get too busy to get online in the next few days).

    • jenpedwards says:

      What a beautiful story! Thank you Timaree!! A very merry Christmas to you and your whole family !! See you in the new year!!

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