Sometimes things don’t turn out the way we might have expected..a flat tire on the way home down a rural road at sundown..a cheesecake slides off the roof of the car on the way to your friends house for dinner..you wear silly teacher pajamas to school only to find out Spirit Week is NEXT week..Your budding teenage singing career is cut to a rug-pulling halt when the doctor discovers severe vocal nodules…All of these things have actually happened to me..yep! Yet, I’m always quick to remind others that providentially-speaking, everything happens for a reason. Sometimes it’s to make us more empathetic towards others, sometimes it’s to reroute our journey and sometimes it’s just to humble us..in any case..it can be a win-win. We don’t always see it at the time, so sometimes we need annoying friends to remind us that better days are ahead and some things make more sense in a rear view mirror as we move forward and get smarter.

So, I didn’t get to be Miss America. That was my first dream as I sat in front of our black and white TV with my toy crown, red robe with fake fur collar, and scepter. However, there have been a whole lifetime of incredible blessings, opportunities and little kisses from heaven that have come my way since then. I have a beautiful family, I’ve had a lovely career teaching art (best job in the world), I’ve been in a movie, I’ve been published and I’ve gotten to meet some pretty incredible people and celebrities along the way. No regrets.

So here I am having just rolled off the board as President of the Tennessee Art Education Association, having served for 8 years and I’ve got a little time on my hands. What seemed like a retirement within a retirement also gave me pause to consider what’s next. My thoughts about things I’ve set aside in order to serve made me think of unfinished paintings I’ve set aside. One thought led to another and so I decided there’s no time like the present to get back to the literal drawing board. I blew the dust off of local and regional arts organizations that I’ve set aside for years and rejoined. I have already signed up to head up the education chair position on the local level, because I’m still an arts advocate. I even entered a juried art show and got accepted, so I entered more. I’m painting or drawing every day. My friends are saying that I work fast, but I just work a lot. I have to make myself do things other than art, because I’m obsessed again with making. And all of this is happening because something else didn’t turn out the way I expected. I am convinced that God delights in surprising us sometimes. I’ve always loved to remind others of this verse in Isaiah 55:

8“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

He really does have a plan. I’m along for the journey. On with the show…