Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention… (Hurricane Pictures, Patreon & More.)

Dearhearts,

Over the last 3 days, since Hurricane Isaias hit, I have been in shock, I have been devastated, and I have been weary and teary and unable to stop crying. My nerves are shot. 3 hurricanes in 3 years takes a body down. Last year it was a “small” hurricane meaning a giant limb fell on the roof and made a hole in it. The year before Hurricane Florence devastated the town and most of us are still, 2 years later, trying to recover, physically, mentally, and emotionally. This year Isaias was supposedly “downgraded” to a tropical storm but by the time it had hit Wilmington it had turned into a hurricane again and it wrought shockingly terrible damage. I woke up the morning after the hurricane and just went to pieces. My nerves are not good in the best of times, but to see trees down all over my yard, through the fencing in multiple places (The fence just finally got completely repaired last December after Hurricane Florence in September 2018.) and more, it just shook me to my core. I was devastated, and in shock.

But the thing is that somewhere deep inside of me there is a core of strength and that core, these days, mainly comes from Maisie. I drew a quick little sketch the day after the hurricane when I couldn’t even think straight or speak. And it was the beginning of what I now know I have to do. Here’s the post I put out on Social Media today. (And if you click on it and open it in a new window you can see it full size and read it much easier.)

And the thing is my loves you, my dear, long-standing readers know how often I have considered and talked about Patreon, always deciding not to do it because I was so scared. Now, I don’t have the luxury of being afraid. Insurance will pay for the fence damage but when trees need to come down they don’t cover that. And I have thousands of dollars of trees that need to come down.

After Florence, which was mind-blowingly devastating, dear friends and followers either sent me money or put money in the Go Fund Me campaign started by 2 dear friends to help me which I deeply appreciated and it helped me more than I can possibly say, I will be forever grateful, but unfortunately I live in what is not so fondly called “Hurricane Central.” Look at a map. Wilmington, NC kind of sticks it’s nose out into the ocean almost like a tiny peninsula which means if a hurricane is coming up the east coast, as it does pretty much yearly anymore, this is going to be an ongoing problem for me and I do not feel right having something like a Go Fund Me campaign, nor can I depend, nor should I, on the kindness of strangers. But I need the money badly and if, I thought with a shudder, I actually DID do Patreon, I could make money by offering something in return. On Patreon there are “Tiers” anywhere from $5 a month to $150 a month. You can make a one time pledge or pledge ongoing with payments set up through Paypal and of course you can quit anytime.

The way it works is that you sign up for whatever tier you would like to, and if it is above the lowest tier you will get all the benefits of the lower tiers plus the benefits of your tier. It is cumulative, and you can quit anytime. You are not bound by a subscription, etc.

So I am going to do Patreon and you won’t see me going back on this because terrified though I am I desparately need the income, to recover from this hurricane and also to keep expanding Maisie’s art and work. Your pledges will help me with everything from tree removal to art supplies and everything in between. In other words, life here at Dragonfly Cottage will be able to keep moving forward because of you, my future patrons, and you will be helping Maisie’s message of love, kindness, compassion, and creating a world of your dreams despite your limitations, physical/mental/financial and more. This work is important.

If some of you didn’t see the post I put up after the hurricane with pictures of my mess and trees down here I will share a few with you here…

I could go on, but really, how much can we all take?

As far as Patreon it will be, over the tiers, a combination of the offerings of my lifetime. Henceforth I will only do 1 blog post publicly each week + one with Maisie’s offerings and where you can find her things (She will be on more places than Society6 eventually.) with updates about what is going on on Patreon.

While subject to change I see my basic level’s offerings of daily, 5x a week, posts that are somewhere between blog posts and love letters, shorter than a regular blog post but up to the minute news about what is going on here on every level (Art, hurricane recovery, what’s going on with the little books, pictures of us now and again, and a few more things.) The second tier will include podcasts. The third tier will include videos. The 4th monthly live group Zoom calls where you can ask me anything!, and the 5th and final tier, VERY limited, will be a once a month private Zoom session with me. I can help you plan your dreams and talk with you about how you might bring them into reality. Or you can ask me questions. We can talk about how I started drawing very late in life, and how you can too. I believe everyone is an artist and it is never too late to begin what you always longed for but never went for. It’s time!

This is just off the top of my head using what I do to offer people benefits for those who are kind enough to help me, support me, help with hurricane recovery, help me purchase art supplies and studio needs to do Maisie’s work, and get Maisie’s work and message out into the world in myriad ways.

I see this becoming a tremendous community over time, I want so much to give but I cannot continue to blog and do other things where I make no income. I love to share, I have a lot to give, but I am a disabled senior citizen living on social security. There are limits and I have finally hit the wall with them.

Thank you for bearing with me the last couple of years or so with the “Will She, Won’t She Ever Do Patreon?” Before it was a possibility, an idea, now it is a necessity. And while I have a great many skills — art, writing, blogging, mentoring, teaching, podcasting, making videos and more, I have not had to do it on a scheduled basis before and I don’t know the ins and outs of it all but I will be working very hard to learn how to do all of this so everything runs more smoothly and your support from the get go will help me do just that.

Thank you so much for your ongoing kindness, love and support all these years. Next month will begin the 14th year of this blog and a lot of you have been following me for a long time. I love you dearly. I hope it has helped you, had merit in your life, and I hope now you will follow me on Patreon and get blog posts that people viewing this blog for free will never see + a whole lot more.

Onwards and upwards but for right now wee Molly and I are going to take a nap. This hurricane has done more than take down a lot of trees. It has done severe damage to sensitive souls. My therapist told me on Wednesday (I still see her weekly but since Covid our meetings are online) that people who never had mental health issues have suffered terrible PTSD since Florence 2 years ago and this hurricane, far worse than imagined, has flattened a lot of us. I will be chipping away at it daily and hope to open the Patreon page September 1.

Blessings to one and all…