Always Chase the Cheese

Happy Saturday friends - dropping in to share some more therapeutic art!

(**SUGGESTED PRICE ON THE WEBSITE IS $300 [taking into consideration supplies, time, and canvas size) BUT I AM HAPPY FOR YOU TO MAKE AN OFFER THAT FITS IN YOUR BUDGET AND I’LL GET IT IN THE MAIL.)

Which reminds me - that’s a big reason why I find myself making art - because it’s a sort of therapy for me AND it seems to be something similar for others.

Like.

The other day I shared a painting I made of Casper the Friendly Ghost and THREE people told me that looking at the picture immediately made them feel like a kid again and overwhelmed them with random feelings of joy that they felt when they were younger.

That’s what it does for me and if it does it for others too? All the better!

Anyways.

This one is called “Always Chase the Cheese”.

I loved Tom and Jerry as a kid – fond memories of episodes playing on Saturday mornings with a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch at the living room table (or Captain Crunch, another classic Saturday morning cereal!) – and as I reflect on that love as an adult, there are 2 things that stand out to me about this iconic cat and mouse due:

1. Tom is pretty boring without Jerry and Jerry is pretty boring without Tom.

They are each a thorn in the side of the other, right? BUT, they give each other purpose. And sometimes that makes me wonder about the thorns in my own side – the hard things of life, the obstacles, etc. I so often want to get rid of the stuff that is a massive pain, but perhaps those pains can help better define my purpose?

OR.

Better refine my purpose?

And maybe if I got rid of them as quickly as I wanted, perhaps something would be robbed of being fully developed in my life?

2. Jerry would do anything to get that cheese and no cat was about to stand in his way of pursuing his little heart’s desire!

I love that because so often in my life I’ve pushed my heart’s desires to the side in an effort to play it safe, avoid the obstacles, etc.

You know …

Stay in line.

Conform.

Do what everyone expects you to do.

Be what (you think) everyone expects you to be.

… And although sometimes playing it safe has been necessary for me (sometimes you DO need to analyze the risk and not take the leap), other times it has robbed me of pursuing my gifts, passions, and joys.

Yes.

I allowed that to happen for far too long in my life as I shut up my inner child and locked him away in the recesses of my heart so that I could be what I thought the world and everyone around me expected me to be. For the longest time I literally changed so much about me to “fit in” the world I used to be in …

I put my art supplies away for 30 years because someone told me my art wasn’t good enough to be much more than a hobby.

I changed the way I dressed, covered my tattoos, cut my hair, and took out my piercings when I became a pastor.

I put my Green Day albums away and replaced them with Christian Worship music.

I tried to get really into things like Systematic Theology so that I could engage in coversations with people in the “inner circles” of the church world I was in.

Yes - I did all of that (and more!) to fit into and be more widely accepted within the rigid/religious/Evangelical/fundamentalist world I was a part of.

And so today? I am trying to “chase the cheese” – the desires of my heart, no matter how much of a thorn in my side the obstacles may be, and regardless of what anyone might think of the various cheeses that bring joy and life to my heart.

Sending you all much love today on our journeys.

Glenn Siepert