“She Is Madly In Love With Her New Stripey Socks”

I think it happened when I painted the stripey socks. In that moment she became, like the Velveteen Rabbit, real to me. And she whispered her name to me. She is Anna. And she is meant to be the focus of a book (Series of books?) for women midlife and beyond. On September 23 this 365 Day Search For Happiness will come to a close. On September 24 the next 365 day project will begin. It will be “The Year Of Anna,” writing and illustrating her book, “The Year Anna Woke Up,” BUT THERE’S MORE! I am inviting all of you, dear readers, to join me with your own 365 Day Project. You have 3 weeks to decide what you want to do, start a blog if you don’t have one already (You can set one up for free, quick and easy, at blogger.com.) and you can come here each day and share, in the comments, a link to your blog post of the day. We can do this together! We will be a force to be reckoned with! We will GET THINGS DONE! We can change our lives. If not, why not? If not now, when? It’s time people, it’s time. It’s never too late to achieve your dreams, and it helps to have accountability partners. Will you be mine? Anna and I will be yours! [I would like to put a thousand smiley face emojis here!]

And here’s the thing. As you have seen, in the last year, my year of searching for happiness, it won’t all be days and days of a happy, sunshiney journey. I’m an artist, we have little fits and bad days and doubts when we’re sure we can’t do this thing, when we have no clue how to go on. And then we have exhilarating days when we get a lot done, when the work moves forward in a joyous way. We have days when we just want to sit with our coffee all day, wine all night, and a couple of pugs in our lap. But NO MATTER WHAT, WE WON’T GIVE UP, WE WILL NOT STOP. Listen, if I, a lifelong anxious, bipolar, depressive with PTSD for whom the Mobile Crisis Unit had to be called a little over a year ago can undertake a 365 day journey and carry it out, DO it, not miss a day, and be ready to launch into another one YOU CAN TOO. There simply are no excuses. This is your “one wild and precious life” as Mary Oliver wrote, and I’m asking you right now — DO YOU WANT TO DIE ONE DAY WITH THE DREAM IN YOUR HEART YOU NEVER WENT FOR? I don’t know about you but I’m not willing to die never having achieved my dreams, or having at least tried my level best to achieve them.

And I’m scared, oh Lord have mercy I am scared. I’ve only been drawing for 5 years but from the beginning what was in my heart of hearts was to do an illustrated story book for women, especially women midlife and beyond. (I’d say my “target audience” is women 50-100+ but I think Anna’s story can have appeal for women of all ages.) A book that would encourage and support women. It is also a way to tell my story without really telling anything I don’t want to tell, and having fun with the quirky things in my life, as well as embellishing, being whimsical, and making things up for fun along the way. That’s my journey. Everything has been pointing to this for the last few years but gracious me it’s just like Dr. Seuss wrote in one of my favorite of his books, Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now. “The time has come, the time is now … Marvin K. Mooney will you please go now?” Well you and I are Marvin K. Mooneys and it’s time for us to go too!

And there are 2 ways you can help me, and I am asking from the bottom of my heart for your help. This is “I’m doing everything I can to help you, will you help me too?” This is requiring a lot of chutzpah for me to ask but you know what, I am 64, I don’t have the money to advertise anything, I am not charging for anything, I just want to create a community around this project, for you and for me, here on this blog and on my Instagram account where drawing Anna will be a huge project this year and I need cheerleaders! So can you do these two things:

If you are not already on my mailing list will you please join it? And can you ask your friends and followers to join it? AND if you think joining along on my 365 day project so your friends, family, followers and list members can have a place that inspires them to do their own project will you post a link to this post and ask your list members to join my list. This would be positively HUGE for me and would mean the world.
Will you follow me on Instagram? If you could be my cheering section there while I draw Anna and write her book it would help me so much. Visit, like the posts, say a few encouraging words. Click on the word Instagram to go to my page and follow me. Oh, I could just hug and kiss you real big for doing this. Perhaps, by building an audience for Anna over the next year, by the time I’m finished I will have found a publisher, built an audience, and been able to encourage thousands of people to go for their dreams right along with me. This is what I am hoping, and trying, to do. ALL THESE THINGS!

So here I go. I would like to hold your hand along the way. And it’s like this… remember that song we used to sing when we were little, or at least we did in Anna’s and my day… “Playmate, come out and play with me, and bring your dolly three, climb up my apple tree, slide down my rain barrel, climb out my cellar door, and we’ll be jolly friends, forever more…” It’s that sort of thing. I’m asking you to be my playmate for the next year. Will you?

And please share this post anywhere you can. There are so many people with dreams stuck in their hearts. We could save and brighten people’s lives all over the world. It’s my BIG CRAZY DREAM and I’m not afraid to ask. Never be afraid to ask for what you need, and then get your rear in gear and act on it!

Let’s DO this thing!