The art of living with intention

One of the things I have decided to bring into my life is more creativity. I am going to take a pastel class in February and a mosaic class in March. This intention has led to another interesting connection. My friend Mary introduced me to a woman named Lorrie who is finishing her final project at Regis. Lorrie is an artist and part of her project is to do art projects with women in transition. She just started this project and she goes to a local women's homeless shelter every Sunday. I told her I would love to help and she invited to me to come today. We brought materials for collage, but some of the women brought their own projects to work on. I started a collage myself-I still need to finish it. This one is inspired by the notion of moving forward...what does the future hold? As I worked on my collage, we chatted with the women and learned about who they are and why they are in this situation. The life stories I heard mad me realize that homeless people were once like you and me. One woman is married to a man who used to work in construction but became disabled. He can no longer work, and they have lost everything because of this. It reminded me of how Mike had to apply for Social Security...and what if I had to quit my job? What if his illness lasted a lot longer, and we had to deal with no insurance? Another woman has bipolar and just can't figure out how to hold down a job. One woman was an artist herself. The art that was being creative was so unique to each woman, and both Lorrie and I saw how this is a small luxury for women who everyday have to struggle. I plan to go with her every Sunday and I look forward to seeing where Lorrie takes this project and how I can help!