Don't let fear be your guide

Yesterday I listened to an audiobook called The Instant Millionaire: A Tale of Wisdom and Wealth by Mark Fisher. It was a nice little story about a man who's unhappy with his life and met a self-made millionaire who teaches him the secret of becoming wealthy in all aspects of his life. It's a beautiful story full of great simple insights that really resonated with me. I'm probably going to listen to it again because it reminded me of various lessons I've been picking up along my journey so far, but I haven't necessarily applied all of them. 

One quote that particularly struck me wast the one shown above : "Don't let fear be your guide". How many of us make decisions or avoid making decision out of fear? I know I still do it and too often. The silly thing is that a lot of those fears are silly : fear of the unknown, fear of getting hurt, fear of hurting other people, fear of feeling judged, fear of feeling embarrassed, fear of making a mistake. The longer they stay in my mind, the bigger the can become if I don't take a step back and look at these fear honestly with a certain amount of detachment. Most of them are not life threatening. They're just uncomfortable. And uncomfortable is where growth happens. So it was a nice little reminder for me to get uncomfortable in order to keep growing. Silly things like going to an event even though I don't know anyone. What's the worst that can happen? Nothing really, but I'll learn and experience something new.

Another beautiful quote that I really connected with was this one :

Always remember that at a certain height there are no clouds. If there are clouds in your life it’s because your soul hasn’t soared high enough. Many people make the mistake of fighting against their problems. What you must do is raise yourself above those problems once and for all. The heart of the rose will lead you above the clouds where the sky is forever clear.

Mark Fisher, The Instant Millionaire: A Tale of Wisdom and Wealth

This quote is freakishly aligned with my thoughts regarding my art project on clouds this year and almost reenergized my determination to pursue my call to paint clouds. 

The Timeraiser Toronto Party was a Success

I first heard of Timeraiser when I lived in Ottawa back in 2009. It's a unique concept that enables artists to sell their artwork to the organization which, in turn, enables art patrons to bid for the artwork in exchange for their time volunteering for various non-for-profit organizations. Fast forward 6 years later, I decided to attend the event in Toronto last night and it was quite inspiring. 

There was a lot of interesting artwork, a lot people interested in volunteering in exchange for the artwork as well as great live art installations by various local artists. I didn't plan on staying long but I ended up staying for 4 hours! 

Artists were making portraits of the visitors. The lines were long to get the opportunity to be sketched by them. It's quite impressive that they were producing so many portraits surrounded by so much activity around them.  

An artist called dahae invited visitors to co-create art pieces with her by leaving their handprints on canvas fabric fixed on the wall. 

Some artist quietly created their work in their bubble while others involved visitors in their work. It's interesting to see the different way artists create. 

I was particularly fond of the work of Jonathan Edwin Simpon who patiently engrave wood trucks with letters creating some sort of poem. Very inspiring!

I really like the way it was set up. There was drinks and food for everyone as well as a clever game Timeraiser put together. We were given a Nonprofit Passport including the logos of each of the participating organizations. They had a booth in the main area to talk to visitors. And for each representative we spoke to, we got a stamp on our passport. If we collected at least 6 stamps, we could participate to a contest to win a prize. This encouraged visitors (including myself) to go talk to the organizations reps and find out the amazing work some of them do. In my case, I found out about groups I genuinely would love to get involved with. Kudo's to Timeraiser for an effective solution to getting more people to connect.

From what I gather, it was a huge success. Timeraiser Toronto raised 15,863 volunteer hours last night. There's  probably more to come from those who, like me, who plan to connect with great organizations such as Emerging Young Artists, Full Circle and Luminato amongst many others. And if you're interested in participating as an artist, they are still accepting submission for their online version here : http://www.timeraiser.ca/artist