A Musing #33

This is the first year I haven’t celebrated or mentioned Canada Day on my own terms. Not because I hate my country, but because there’s a lot of shit happening behind the image of our handsome prime minister. It’s been a violent 150 years towards the indigenous people of Canada. They’re the real Canadians and we aren’t treating them fairly. The suicide rate is through the roof among native youth and we have passed the 1000 mark for missing and murdered indigenous women. It’s great to come out and watch fireworks, BBQ, and crack some cold ones open, but we aren’t that great. We need to fix it. Until there are steps being made towards solving the many problems caused by our colonial hands, I won’t be celebrating Canada’s birthday.

This post is going to be more of a rant than anything else. I’ve gone on before in previous posts about how life has it’s ups and downs and that’s completely normal. There’s nothing wrong with being down and I’m comfortable enough to tell you that I’m in a slump. I feel a bit lost. You might perceive me as the strong role model or inspiration but I have my days where I want to collapse. Somedays I want to come in my studio and take an axe to all my work. By communicating this with you, I want you to understand it’s normal. I know I’ll get up on a rise and so will you. The advice I received from my friend yesterday was “you’re down but now’s the time to paint about it like I know you can”. That’s exactly what I’m going to do.

The lesson here is that everyone moves at their own pace. Remember all the things you’ve done and what you have instead of focusing on what you don’t. Keep creating to the point people think you’re on drugs or completely insane. Doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad, just post it up and keep going. A bad mood doesn’t define your collection. Stick to your guns and it’s okay not to fit in. It’s going to be okay. You’re time is coming.