Be Persistent: like a mosquito

Saturday afternoon was a scheduled time for me to get away from the house and reset my heart and mind. I find I need these moments of solitude in the woods to recenter me. I normally bring my journal/sketchbook with me because I know I will have some thoughts and images I want to get out.

I headed for an a local conservation area on a humid sunny afternoon. The nature walk started out fairly well. I took a trail I hadn't explored before and was about 1/2 mile in when I noticed that anytime I stopped to observe something on the trail I would get swarmed by mosquitos.

"I'll just walk faster" I thought.

Well...faster became interval trail jogging up the hill. I was doing the outside version of the stair climber workout machine. I kept debating whether I should turn around and head back.

I really wanted to be in the woods. So, I kept going.

Up and Up.

Finally I reached the trail fork and made the decision to turn right and return back to the car. The skeeters just wouldn't leave me alone!

Now...I am running down a 520 vertical foot trail, with a liter of water thumping against my back and in one had my sketchbook frantically waving around my head to keep the bugs away. I even have to change the way I am breathing so not to inhale the "extra protein". Note, I am not dressed for tail running and I am hauling down the hill attempting to not twist an ankle on a rock or root.

Somewhere in the recesses of my brain I am feeling proud of myself because I knew my body can handle this length and type of run. I made it back to the car and jumped inside. Oh my days those mosquitoes were persistent!

I looked up the meaning of persistent. It means: continuing firmly / purposefully on a course of action despite difficulty.

I got to thinking where I am being persistent now and where I am seeing the fruits of that purposefulness. Running out of the woods, at a fairly decent clip- I was running 11 minute miles, is the result of me persistently running little bit at a time over the last 4 years.

After 2 years of pursuing my painting practice I am making progress; I've learned adding collage paper to a canvas it not something I enjoy and neither is the process of removing the applied papers a part of the process I want to keep doing. I am using the remain collage papers I have stored as fast no pressure exploration. I have learned, I don’t like to mix colors on a palette. I find it tedious and too “scientific.” So I mix on the canvas or in buckets. Gold leaf applied as under layers that peek through the paint and catch the light...hmmm I like that!

What are you pursuing in your life right now? Remember, keep going-even little by little- be mosquito persistent!