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Postcards
“What Do You Know For Sure?”
Vision: As a 35th birthday present to myself, I sent out a video request to most of the people I know asking them for their simple response to the question, “What Do You Know For Sure?”
Their answers were to be written on a postcard mailed to my P.O. Box. It was such a thrill to check the mail every day leading up to my birthday wondering whose message would be welcoming me that day. I received around 100 postcards in all. The answers were funny, life-affirming, wise. The postcard choices interesting and artful.
This gallery showcases a few of my favorites.
What I know for sure: The love from your dog is pure. Naps are good for you. It’s nice to get mail that’s not a bill or junk. A good movie is life changing. Travel is a necessity. Spell check is taken for granted. Love is everywhere. Photographs are treasures. Journaling is good therapy. Flowers remind us of simple beauty.
…that true, unconditional love begins the day your first child is born…
Maria, my dad always asked me, “What were you worried about a year ago? I bet you don’t remember!” It’s incredible how much time I’ve spent worrying! What I’ve learned is that worrying = fear and it stops you from doing the thing that will make you grow. I haven’t learned how to stop but at least I catch it faster and dwell in it less. Sometimes we just have to open the door and walk through.
It’s easier to live the truth for yourself, than to live a lie for others.
Moderation is king, but excess gets all the attention.
NEVER go to Costco on a Saturday!!!
Life is an opportunity to recreate myself.
I know for sure that everything is going to be okay.
One thing that I know for sure is that money doesn’t grow on trees. But apples do grow on trees and there’s money in apples if you know what you’re doing.
Additional Postcard Project Wisdom:
- Risk is the essence of change
Change is the essence of adaptability
Adaptability is the essence of success
Success is the essence of inner peace
Inner peace is the essence of balance
Balance and peace need to be protected
I am sure of this
- It takes about 5 years for a romantic relationship to reach maturity. (Give or take.) It takes less than 6 months to know if a relationship, whether romantic or friendly, is good for you or not. Some people enhance you, some people want to bring you down, or want to take but not give back.
- Only allow into your inner self those who enhance you and share in your peace and harmony. The rest stay at arm’s length. (Some until you can fade them away.)
- Lovers, friends, acquaintances come for a reason! Some stay for a season, very, very few stay forever, like family.
- Always wear sunscreen on your face, (daily under your makeup), and forget tanning. The sun is the worst enemy of your face. Take this advice from a 58-year-old woman without a wrinkle on her face.
- One thing I know for sure: There is no sound more beautiful than the sound of your baby laughing.
- Here is what I know for sure: there is hope for finding the right person to be your life partner, even when you think there isn’t. I can recall many a night at home, by myself, thinking it would never happen, and feeling so lonely even when the rest of my life felt quite full. There would be weeks with no dates, then I would meet someone with potential who later let me down –– again and again –– and I was convinced the cycle would be endless. Weeks turned into months, which turned into years. And then I went to a party one night that changed my life. It can happen, and it does.
- I breathe easier in a dense forest.
Podcast
Refresh Ep 49 | How Life Listens When You Dare to Take a Chance with Maria Rivera
Rites of Passage
Application for entry into the University of Texas Creative Sequence.
Vision: Formulate a response in answer to the question, “Who is self?” using art, the written word, or any other executional style that communicates on an 11×17 sheet of paper.
Medium: X-ray
Copy:
The self,
disrobed,
does not search for acceptance
it knows nothing of masks
for its power
lives not in fear
but in truth
and the courage that comes
from having cojones
the size of Texas