Silver Linings

Gratitude creates it’s own attitude. It can give you a new perspective, a new focus. I am going to use this day as my opportunity to see those things.

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In an earlier post, I talked about how my company was taking advantage of Oregon’s Work Share program, to reduce hours, while not laying anyone off. Well, I was informed this week, that I am one of those workers. I am going to 32 hours (4 days)/week. I had been considering this, but had wanted to look at our budget first. It turns out the decision was made for me. At first, I started to think about the loss in income and worry, then it dawned on me that I have actually been wanting this for a long time. I had just gotten used to the paycheck and the idea of loosing some of that was unsettling.

Why had I been thinking of it? Two reasons… I’ve been under the weather on and off for a while with asthma related respiratory issues. I figured that working a little less would allow me some time to rest and develop a plan to manage it.

Second, and more importantly, I’ve been meaning to set up my Art business again for real and get my original fine art online in an Etsy shop. This is something that I’ve been thinking and talking about for nearly a year, probably more. It usually turned out that I was just too tired or brain fried by the end of the day to do much about it. It was far easier to stare at the TV and think about all the great things I couldn’t do, because I didn’t have the time.

No more of that! I’ve already started things in motion by registering “Simrat Khalsa Fine Art & Photography” as a dba in Oregon and opening my business bank accounts. Next will be transferring simratkhalsa.com to the same host as akalranch.com and setting up an email account for my business under simratkhalsa.com. My current photo site will be down for a while (hopefully short) while I get everything functional.

Then I’ll be setting up an Etsy shop and a fresh new paypal account, taking photos of my completed work in stock and getting it all listed on Etsy. Be sure to check in next week, as I have small edition screen prints, artist’s books and handbound journals, as well as a few paintings.

The end goal is to integrate my photo/art reproduction site (currently at simratkhalsa.com) with the new Etsy shop and this blog all under an integrated home page at simratkhalsa.com. The design end will be a bit more long term, but I hope to have it all working by the end of the weekend, if all goes well! This blog will stay at akalranch.com, but be linked from simratkhalsa.com and eventually similar in look and feel.

And then it will be on to marketing and building income from my artwork. This entire plan has been forming in my head for a long time. I guess I just needed the lost day from my paying job to light the fire under me. The real opportunity is having the time to get this all set up.

And once some of my current to stock of completed work has moved on to new homes, I will have the space to create more, fresh work. And by space, I mean not just physical space, but emotional and psychic space as well …. I needed a jolt to get me out of the rut I’ve been in. I’m just grateful that it was a gentle one.

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Take a few minutes today to create your own Thankful Thursday.

How:

Sit back and consider what you have to be thankful for. Listing three to five things is nice, but one will do.

Post about gratitude on your blog.

Then link back here or leave a comment.

Feel free to tag other bloggers, if you like to do that, but it’s not necessary. This is not a meme that obligates you to do anything, but look for gratitude. Oh, and link back, and comment, that’s all I ask.

If you don’t have your own blog, go ahead and write about what you are thankful for in the comments of my latest Thankful Thursday. post instead.

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Visit these other blogs that often participate in Thankful Thursday:

The Pony Expression

Tired Dog Ranch

Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch

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