paintings and pathways

Hello Hello! It's pouring down rain in Welli today. But Justin & I have had a good weekend nonetheless. We did some babysitting on Friday and took 2 girls from our church for pizza. Saturday was most excellent as we had our whole flat to ourselves for 4 days!, so we took advantage of the time and had a lil date. We both think our place still feels a bit like a vacation home- and yesterday this was accentuated as we slept in, walked down to the waterfront where we went to another awesome cafe (I had the most amazing butterscotch and pear pancakes), came home to read some of my novel for book club, and Justin made us dinner at our place. We are feeling a bit spoiled and sometimes I worry about what life will be like when we don't have so much leisure time. But for now, we will enjoy it and be thankful for the opportunities! Today is Sunday and since the bad weather canceled Justin's golf match, he made some donuts, while I got to chat with my Dad. Loved catching up Dad, and thanks for the tire advice:) This afternoon we went with some friends to the Monet & the Impressionists exhibit at Te Papa (NZ's national museum). I feel very cultured and loved learning about Monet as we got the $5 audio guide. He did amazing work capturing the mood of a natural setting. He would set up his canvas in one place and camp out all day, painting sometimes 5 canvases of the same setting in different lighting. He saw colors that no one else saw. And his dedication was amazing. The lily pond paintings- they came from a garden he set up at his home and painted them for over 20 years! Who knew that 1 nature setting could be that captivating? I think his work points to something that I've been thinking about- giving yourself and your life to something or some cause.

I've always had a hard time choosing just one thing to invest all of myself. Making the choice to be about 1 thing, means you have to forsake all other things and this is painful to me. I have realized though that my desire to want to do, or be good at many things has actually disabled me to become great at anything. I don't see myself as a devoted person to any 1 subject, topic, or hobby and as I'm processing through this, I'm hitting that place in my life where I want to focus and become an expert at something. I want to retain my excitement about many things, but I also want to hone in on what makes me tick. My desire to go to grad school is also helping me process this- and currently I'm thinking that I want to make people my thing. Yes a very big and broad category I know. But I want to study people and what makes us do what we do. There is a program at the University of Victoria which I'm thinking about taking called the Masters in Management Studies. Most of the courses are dealing with topics such as leadership, motivation, strategy and organization. It focuses on the theory of business, not the numbers, and seeks to understand both the psychological aspects, as well as the leadership side of business.

So I'm wondering what the people who know me most think about this potential path? I can be a person of very rash decisions, and as I'm trying to grow out of this, I'm trying to deliberate this decision better. The degree isn't highly known or recognized, but I think I could still use the degree to teach at other business programs at the university level, and/or run seminars and advise businesses (thanks to Lib who has given me her feedback and suggestions). I think this plan fits me rather well and I'm excited to see where it could take me. But what are your thoughts or questions as I process this path?

I'll leave you with something much more intriguing than my writings... a Renior painting... 1 of my favorites from the exhibit!