somewhere along the way visual journal no. 13 stopped being a visual journal and started becoming a field of white that i can squirt paint onto. i hardly ever write in it. i hardly ever finish anything. i hardly ever do anything in it except experiment with color. it's crude. it's random. it's happy-making.
i hate to be so nauseatingly cheerful about my sabbatical, but the truth is i feel HIGH most of the time. i sit in the warm sun. i read. i pet catboy & catgirl. i talk to the racoons who visit my back patio. i entertain thoughts of never ever being a working stiff again. for shite's sake i'm reading abraham. lincoln. vampire. hunter. i haven't started speaking in tongues yet. but that doesn't feel far off. stick with me. this is all going somewhere. i think.
Hope you will continue to spread and celebrate your JOY. Nothing is more joyful than to sit with a journal and paint and make dots and dashes, lines and circles all the while knowing your time is your own and noone can intrude on it unless you invite them. 2 years, 1 month, 3 weeks til I am on permanent sabbatical and moving toward it with a huge smile on my face :)))
Thanks Mary Ann! Enjoy your sabattical!
Susan this is that cheap stuff you can get at michaels for less than 90cents a bottle!!! They have millions of fun colors!
I have loved every class I have taken and just adore your yadda yadda and journaling and blabbering and find you an inspiration each and every day. Love the simplicity in this last venture, it will encourage me to try my hand at this too. Have fun, enjoy your freedom, Mary Ann.
This is so happy looking! I love the colours and patterns. What kind of paint do you use?
I love your colors and I enjoy the enthusiasm that you use to embrace life.
oh, it’s definitely all going somewhere!….
xo
Yabba dabba, Mary Ann! Not long now and you WILL be speaking in tongues. I’m so glad to know you’re enjoying life. Be very happy.
I wouldn’t expect any less that nauseating happy time, speaking in tongues, holy rollering, having a blast. This is what a sabbatical should be…time to reflect, laze about, be creative, this is what life should be…not a mind boggling, spirit crushing, stress filled job…it’s really a shame that teachers especially, have to feel so worn down. The school systems are failing.
So enjoy your sabbatical to the max! Get a hula hoop, fly a kite, sleep till 10 AM, have breakfast in bed, get a peddi/mani, or a massage. Smell the flowers that are getting ready to bloom…just enjoy and have a grand time.
That ‘high’ is what we all should be feeling everyday if we were brave enough to allow ourselves to go in the direction our heart & soul tells us to go! We loose that internal compass when we are younger & are unconsciously bombarded with cultural & societal messages that get our compass off kilter. I’m trying to shake my compass up this year, you know like the iPhone prompts you to make that figure 8 shape in the air, a little head spinning, but I need to reset that internal compass! The world would be a much better/happier place if we could all join you in your ‘high’! Thanks for sharing your bravery with us!
yada yada yada looks yummy yummy yummy to me, and I think you deserve this feeling of free & happy. keep it up!
You so deserve this, Mary Ann…kick back and enjoy it all! Your cheerfulness shows in that rainbow of colors you are squirting/painting on those delish pages.
I retired 5 years ago and now the real wonderment is…how in the world did I ever find time to work and do everything else that I did! My days are so full of all the fun, good and happy things that one truly enjoys.
Life is what we make of it and I see you absolutely making the BEST for yourself!
I’m so happy for you and for myself, in finding your blog, by chance, when I did.
I could have been amazing if I would have had you as my first teacher.
A M A Z I N G ! ! !
One cannot look at Journal No. 13 and not be instantly cheered, glad you are enjoying your creative time away…
is it alright that as a student, who is so desperately eager to absorb the knowledge, that I am a bit sad for the sweet little monkeys that no longer have you as their teacher?
I am delirously happy for you, ridiculously so. As a fan patiently waiting to be upgraded to friend I want nothing but happy completely giddy things for you… always.
So happy for you! You deserve it. When I was working corporate I kept imagining how workers could be more creative if they could take a 6 or 9 month sabbatical to explore different things. Unfortunately I was never able to convince anyone that would be beneficial. So I quit. So there. I’m so happy that you have this time.
Yay! Two thumbs up for happy-making journal pages and nauseatingly cheerful sabbaticals!! 😀
So happy for you!
I think ALL souls deserve this.
How wonderful to enjoy your “pause” along with you. Luckily this year I don’t have a class that hurts so I’ll hang on a bit longer. I laugh more than I growl and that’s good. I know of too many who can’t. I am sosososososososo happy for you.
I enjoyed ALVH, good research and wit to it. I messed it up by expecting the movie to demonstrate the same wit. It turned out to be a show off of CGI and action. I felt embarrassed for it. Have you read author’s other? Pride & Prejudice and Zombies? I liked it as well – 80% is Jane Austen’s original text. It started a wave of using public domain literature to riff on.
Reading your happy posts makes me smile. I delight in your happy adventures during this special time off from work. I truly think you are one of those rare souls who deserve this and I do know it is costing you, too. Play, read, bask, soak up sunshine and cat head bonks and good grub. And then, pretty please, share it all with us!
XO
I so know how happy and content you are feeling right now. Three years ago I lost my job and didn’t find another one for 9 months. Nine of the happiest months of my life. I sewed again for the first time in years. I made a quilt..my first. I drove out to Texas to visit grandkids. I made Chinese adopted babies (5 dolls) for them. I was able to help my daughter when she really needed it. I read. I made pretty stuff. I regrouped. I felt rested and refreshed. I loved it. I said “thank you God” everyday.
I eventually had to go back to work. Nobody to support me but me. One day I’ll do it again.
Enjoy every beautiful minute!
Just keep doing what your are doing ’cause I’m loving it!
So, so envious. Enjoy every intoxicating moment! Can’t wait to see where this leads you…
I have been visiting your site for some time now, and have never left a comment….I think it is because I am shy, and today for some reason I decided it was time. I always enjoy my visits here. Love to see your happiness spilling forth in this lovely journal you have created. And one day I hope to manage to go from my little blog to an organized website… not sure when that can happen, but a girl has to dream. Yours is looking great! Thanks for sharing all that you do!
I feel happiness just reading about your happiness! I work in a public school also and am considering a break or maybe an end to this job. I dream of more playtime, like you, to read, pet chickens and cats and dogs, and alpacas, also push some paint around and glue good stuff on assorted journals as I travel here and there. So Fun and therapeutic! So glad to have found you! You are so good to share yourself. Thank you! Love your colorful journal!
lovin the color. enjoy your days.
I am diggin that color playground pretending it’s a journal. It’s just so dang cool. Ya know if the mood ever strikes that amazingly messy, painty, party brain of yours, maybe some day you’d put together a mini visual journal class where we can whip out our paints and inks…I know, that is in part what you’ve got rolled up into Stencilry (which is AWESOME of course) but I swear you’ve got magic in your finger tips when it come to pushing paint around…in fact…you and Pam seriously need to put your brains and your magic fingers together and do an online super-hero-art-duo on line class. OMG that would be incredible. I’m gonna wish on a few stars for that one but in the meantime I think it’s fantastic that you are on a permanent, long over due, ‘high’ you’ve earned it, deserve it and I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather see gifted with it. I can feel that pure, good energy and joy all bursting right out of the wires, in fact it’s causing my WIFI to quiver at an almost alarming rate. I am hanging on with both hands and smiling for you hugely! xxooxx
I love your happy making journal, it gives me the smileys!
Enjoy yourself! My hubby teaches elementary school and is going bonkers – there is talk daily from him of retiring early now and I fear he may spontaneously combust from the stress. YIKES!
How is Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter btw? 😉
my inspiration…
you nkow what? I love your blog…
The journal is lovely!! I am late to the party, but I have been thoroughly enjoying ALL of your online classes soooo much! I love travel, I love books and I love writing, so I am thankful to have found you through Pam Garrison. Enjoy your freedom! Your personality is endearing! xx, Julie
Never apologize for being happy! The happier you are — the happier each one of us is — the happier the world is.
Follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, Mary Ann. Make a wish, click your heels thrice and who knows? Did I get that right?
Maria from Sacramento
Girl, you deserve to be nauseatingly cheerful — go for it!
Happy day, you are supposed to be doing what your doing. Thank heavens your wise enough to be having fun so have some. One day you will wake up and your future will be clear (or not). Whatever, your life road will start to lead somewhere so put on your sparkley shoes, dance,make art, read or just stare at the cat posse I feel happy just reading your posts so keep them up.
Watch out for the tendrils of “real” life that will start creeping over your property lines (actual and emotional). Stamp them out, or in just a few months your life will start to feel full again. Practice “no” in every language, including tongues.
It doesn’t have to go anywhere!
(And how is ALVH?)
Thank you for sharing your joy with us, Mary Ann. Enjoy every minute of the squirting, experimenting, and happy-making.
Don’t kid yourself – you speak in tongues already: the tongues of joy, art, cats, travel, journaling, color, and contentment.
I’m retired from teaching after 37 years and I have to say, its wonderful!!!!
based on the stories, sounds like you well deserve to be nauseatingly cheerful, so embrace it and don’t apologize, woman! i left a toxic job last november and i’m just getting over the trauma. enjoy your free time; do what you want, when you want. or do nothing at all—you EARNED it!