GRATITUDE + CONSCIOUS LIVING Page 17 of 22

Today’s shared story comes from Carrie Schmitt in Seattle, USA, who shares how a life-threatening allergy forced her to do what she loves.

I didn’t do what I loved until I was forced.  It was a matter of survival, at least emotionally.  In 2009, I developed a life-threatening allergy to heat.  It. Was. Devastating. I couldn’t leave my home for 4 months because of the extreme heat and humidity in Ohio.

Gone were spending leisurely days at the pool with my children or tinkering in my beloved garden, which gave me a joy so pure and connected to the rythmn of life that I didn’t know how I could survive without it.

Also, gone were the mundane errands, such as shopping and carpooling.  Suddenly, for the first time since college, I had time for myself.  I was often left home alone while my husband and kids went about their summer lives.

Thinking that my life was over (at least an outdoor, physically active life that I loved) is what finally pushed me to pursue a dream I had long ignored — to become an artist.  I distinctly remembered thinking to myself, “Well, if my life is over, I might as well do what I want and paint.”

I picked up a paintbrush, experimented and began taking online art classes. Slowly, I felt alive and excited again.  I had a reason to wake up early in the morning — to paint flowers instead of plant them.

This act of desperation—forcing myself to do what I love and have always loved which is to create—was the first of many gifts that my dreadful heat allergy has given me.  Strangely, my dis-ease realigned my life in ways that made my dreams start coming true.

Today, my family and I reside in a more temperate climate in our farmhouse on a wet and wild mountain in Washington — another long ago abandoned childhood dream come true for me thanks to my heat allergy.

I have my own detached studio at our home and am an artist who recently launched my first professional website, which became a transformative moment for me when I realized that I was actually working and living as an artist!

I’ve noticed throughout my life that when you don’t follow your authentic path and do what you love, the universe gives you signs.  Signs I ignored for so long that the universe finally screamed at me to sit down and paint.

I’m in a state of bliss because I finally listened.  My wish for you is that you find the strength to listen to your soul’s deepest whispers too and don’t wait until you think your life is over to follow your dreams.

[Images courtesy of Carrie Schmitt. Find out more about Carrie on her website or connect on Facebook and Pinterest]

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