{"id":6887,"date":"2013-06-13T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T16:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=6887"},"modified":"2013-06-13T10:36:12","modified_gmt":"2013-06-13T17:36:12","slug":"put-a-seed-in-the-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2013\/06\/13\/put-a-seed-in-the-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Put a Seed in the Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Palo-Verde-115\"<\/a><\/h6>\n
Palo Verde<\/em>, once a seed, lightly nurtured, now flourishing. (Click for details.)<\/a><\/h6>\n

When I first got the idea to become a painter I was 55.<\/p>\n

I was driving home from work one evening waiting for a red light to change. I turned my head and looked in a gallery window. What came over me at that moment was both unexpected and life changing. I thought to myself, “I could do that.”<\/p>\n

Not that I could paint like that. Not yet. But that person had figured it out; I could figure it out.<\/p>\n

But when? I had a full-on job, so full I brought work home. We were raising children and involved in their lives. I was on multiple boards. My travel schedule was such that I was always carrying tickets for my next trip. I was somewhere in the middle of a mid-life master’s degree program. We were involved at church.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t complaining; I loved it all. But how to get this new seed in the ground?<\/p>\n

Weeks and then months passed and I wasn’t able to even start.\u00a0Then one day, after dinner, I set up a card table in the corner of a room, got my materials out, and began to play. It was very low key. I painted in oils in a sketch book. Very impractical, as oils dry slowly and you can’t even turn the pages, but that’s what I did.<\/p>\n

I repeated this the next day, and the next, and next. It was just for an hour or so, playing in the paint, then leaving the mess out so I could sit down and immediately be doing it again.<\/p>\n

I found that even in a busy schedule, I could do this. I could reserve an hour each day, at a given time and in a given place.<\/p>\n

The seed in the ground, after that it was just regular nurturing.<\/p>\n

I still had no idea where this was all going, but it didn’t matter: I was painting.<\/p>\n

Now it’s my occupation.<\/p>\n

These things start small. They’re seeds. They just have to be put in the ground, then nurtured. After that, growth is only natural.<\/p>\n

What’s your seed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a principle for learning any new thing even in the midst of a busy life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6887"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6909,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887\/revisions\/6909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}