Paid in Full
Our focus this week — Oct 22-28: “Paying Dues”
Today’s MotD: Paid in Full. We’re encouraged to seek out where in our lives we may have already paid our dues without realizing it or without allowing ourselves to accept it. For instance if there is a particular skill we’ve been developing over the years and have pretty much mastered yet we still feel like we have to keep taking classes or reading more books or continuing to practice. This falls into the “not good enough yet” rabbit hole. It’s time to step out of that hole, realize we’ve paid our dues, and allow ourselves to be worthy of being good enough (or better).
For the longest time I struggled to call myself an artist. Some of that had to do with the fact that I didn’t create “real” art. I wasn’t creating sweeping landscape paintings, or dramatic portraits, or captivating still life’s. As a matter of fact, I was once told by an art show curator that my mandala art, while beautiful they said, was rejected from being in the show because they didn’t know where to put it, it didn’t fit any of their categories and would have looked out of place overall. For another art show, the judge, who generally creates architectural paintings, told me he didn’t get my mandala art. He didn’t tell me it didn’t qualify as art, he told me it didn’t fit into any category with which he was familiar.
In both of these cases, and some others, I was accepted as an artist. It was my art that was “rejected” because it didn’t fit the norm. That’s when I allowed myself to call myself an artist. I had paid enough dues to qualify. Now, this doesn’t mean I stopped growing as an artist, it means that as an artist, I could allow myself to continue to explore, expand, and exceed my previous achievements. And in this case, I’m continuing to pay my dues so I can expand on my membership.
How about you ? Is there an area of your life where you may have already paid your dues but don’t allow yourself to acknowledge it ? Is there something you are/do/make that you don’t allow yourself to think you’re good enough at it yet ? Do you feel like you have to keep studying/learning/practicing at when you’re already good enough that you could teach it, sell it, or be it ?
BTW…Here’s the before…the front and back view of today’s puzzle piece and the pretty ceramic box that holds all my numbers from which I randomly choose each day’s puzzle piece number:
Peace & Blessings,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
Creating Mandalas 🔆 Awakening Inner Harmony
ABOUT THE 2025 Mandalas of the Day
Throughout the year, I’ll be building one large (48”x48”) Tibetan-styled Mandala one piece at a time…one puzzle piece at a time, that is. The mandala design and the reversed puzzle side were printed on artist-quality watercolor paper. The forward facing puzzle side was printed on a 48”x48” wood panel.
Each day, at random, I’ll be painting in watercolors one of the 365 watercolor puzzle pieces, that by the end of the year will become Archangel Mandala #4. Read more about the Archangel Series. The word/message for each piece will be inspired by Melody Beattie’s book “52 Weeks of Conscious Contact”.
Ultimately, the message of this mandala is about how we are all uniquely part of the one.
Mandala of the Day 