Colouring Outside the Box

18 August 2015


There is this leap that happens within the realm of a single bold choice; and when it is taken - a parallel universe seems to emerge. A reality like no other - where time and space collapse.

I am typing from this space. It's surreal. It feels like I am out of my body looking down at my not so dead self, yet. I can't recognise anything familiar. Suddenly, the last 17 years, seems to have been just a dream. I worked so hard for that adventure, and now it just feels like a two hour movie. It's over. Worst, it began to feel unreal after the birth of this new path. How can it just disappear like that? My mind simply dropped those long years like a duffle bag at the arrival station.

I am out of the matrix. I'm on a different grid. It's so strange, yet it feels so good. I simply leapt from one passion to the next, making the universe decide it's perfect timing.

Tomorrow, it's official. My daughter goes to school, my husband goes to work and I..

I am in a state of surrender, though I am drafting a tentative map. It 'sounds' like this:

paint.

When I was 14, I asked my parents to allow me to drop out of school so I could just paint day and night. Surely, they were not hallucinating a mind blowing possibility with me. They were and are oddballs of a human being, but they -

said no.

Technically, it was "It's always better if you have a degree to back you up. You can always keep it as a hobby."

(I ended up finishing several degrees after that)

At 39, I asked them again. And they, still oddballs of a human being -

gave their version of "no".

"it might consume you and sacrifice your health"

my mother, however, gave a yes, but without a leaping hurrah - understandably

A few weeks after, I told them that I've resigned and will be painting full-time. After a few days of silence, my parents have shown me unprecedented support. 

My hubby and baby? Unquestionable faith. I don't know which planets they came from, but they - sure as heaven, were doubtless. Especially, my daughter. My husband, without a life jacket and only his full-time job, simply plunged in with me. Eyes closed. 

Romantic. Sustainable. Spiritual.

Tomorrow, I will be living with my choice. And I hope, it begins with a Surya Namaskar, a hot cup of Green tea, a handwritten journal entry, a few minutes of silence and a palette on the yoga mat.

I have about 355 days left to live in this parallel reality. Then I decide, whether I return to the old planet or move on to the next.

I plan to consume all the wax in these days. 

Happy painting!