Finding Your Bliss
photo by Liz Labunski
Ralph took early retirement from a long-held job in corporate America. When I first met him, he was a somewhat reserved and quiet family man who was a frequent victim of excruciatingly painful headaches. Tens years later, I saw him again. He looked reborn. Years had simply dropped from his face. His eyes sparkled and his body radiated a kind of inner joy. After catching up on the years, he told me his secret.
One day while traveling around the country in their RV, he and his wife, Pam, stopped in a gallery. Pam fell in love with an intricately sculptured copper fountain. She wanted to buy it. It was very expensive, so Ralph promised her he would make her one.
Ralph is the type of person who believes he can figure out how to do just about anything. When they returned home, he set to work immediately gathering materials and setting up a workspace in which he could make this sculpture. After several weeks had passed, he surprised Pam by presenting her with a duplicate of the fountain she’d admired in the gallery. She was genuinely amazed. But his effort didn’t stop there. Ralph wanted to make more. He realized in those few weeks that he’d found something he truly enjoyed doing. After seeing the fountain, friends and relatives flooded Ralph with orders for more. Soon, he found himself barely able to keep up with the orders, because once people saw one, the fountains practically sold themselves. The money came pouring in. Before long, his outstanding work was being displayed in several galleries.
I asked Ralph how he felt about his life as an artist, and he replied with a wide grin that he loved it. Ralph is a happy man. Practically overnight, his life had turned around. He’d become a successful artist, he was admired by family and friends, and he had found something he loved to do.
