Possibility. I can smell it in the air. A new year, a new year to experience things I never thought possible. I never in a million years thought I could make a living painting full time. That was the stuff of art school dreams. I think maybe because I never intentionally went looking for that it happened. I have no idea how long I will be able to do this for. I have no idea where life is taking me. As controlling as I am, I try hard to still stay open to what opportunities are out there. I think that deciding I will be a this or a that leads to alot of frustration and feelings of failure. I love that I could be doing something I never dreamed of by the end of this year. Possibility. I spent the past two days holed up in my office finishing a project I have been working on since June. I began to get short of breath as I finished it. It was so exciting to be finishing something that has only been in my head for thepast 6 months. Today I will finish the last 3 sketches and polish the text and I will submit my proposal. It is really scary. It is a children's book that have written and illustrated. For about as long as I can remember I have wanted to do this. One of the reasons is so that I can then take my book and go visit children with it in schools. I have a childhood memory of an illustrator coming to my school and thinking, THAT is what I want to do one day. It took many, many years and I think this is one of the scariest things I have done in a long time, but if I don't show it to anyone, no one will be able to say yes or no. So on this first day of 2004 I am sending out a dream. What happens to it does not matter as much as doing it. You can't spend your whole life waiting, planning, wishing, wanting. Doing, action, trying, experiencing, living. That is what 2003 was about and I want 2004 to be about that as well. Here is to a year full of possibility, experience, and trying something you never even imagined you might do before. Because THAT is what life is really about. Learning and possibility. And here is a sneak at one of the illustrations in my book.