HEADSPACE + HEARTSPACE Page 14 of 22

I AM an artist: Rachelle Panagarry shares her story

Posted on 2012-07-16 at 9:00 am.

Today’s shared story comes from Rachelle Panagarry who lives in the UK with her husband and children, teaches full time, creates art and loves life.

Some people might say that from the outside appearance, I’m already doing what I love, but those who really know me can see that I’m actually just beginning to do it. I know this might not really make too much sense but let me explain.

I’m currently working full time as a school teacher in a school that is full of fun and challenges and no two days are ever the same. What’s more, I LOVE that place and I feel in a very honored position to have a part in educating the children that come into my care.

BUT

My true love, in fact what I now believe to be my true life as well as love, is my art.

After taking a break from teaching due to illness, and having much needed breathing space, I have rediscovered what I knew to be true all along. I am an artist. Yes, I said it. I AM an artist. This is my true calling, I know it and feel it and the desire to be creative grows stronger every day.

For so many years now, I have watched and admired other artists from the sidelines. I’d read about them, collect artwork, view websites and wonder ‘what if’ I’d pursued my art rather than teaching. Well due to what could have been a real negative situation, but actually turned out to be the best, the illness (heart related) has given me that push to go do it for myself. If I’ve learned one thing this last twelve months, it’s that life is short so GRAB it and DO WHAT YOU LOVE.

I realized that if I want to be taken seriously, then I had to take my art seriously myself. I started to blog, tentatively at first, and put my artwork ‘out there’ for the whole world to see. I wasn’t really prepared for the response that I got. Like many creative folk, I too suffer from the ‘my art’s not good enough syndrome’, so it was a real shock when the response was positive. But even better was an email in my inbox asking if I’d like to have my art included in a book to be published by Suzi Blu. I think I actually screamed out loud when I read the message. Of course I said yes, and this year it was published. A dream come true for me, but better than that, it gave me the confidence to really believe in myself and to go after what I want. I want to do what I love, and what I love is making art.

Things are starting to go from strength to strength and I can feel a bright future ahead of me now, something that I didn’t see before I was ill. It’s so exciting… I can’t wait for this creative journey ahead, I just know I’m going to LOVE it.

[Images courtesy of Rachelle Panagarry.]

Find out more about Rachelle on her website.

Not wearing busyness as a badge of honour

Posted on 2012-07-12 at 9:10 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Back in my days of having a ‘job’, my frequent response to the question “How are you?” was “I’m so busy”. Thinking back to those days, I even used to write that in emails to friends, as if being busy was my news and something to be proud of. What was that all about?

(more…)

Taking time to stand still

Posted on 2012-06-19 at 11:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

We are here in Kyoto for six months. A long time. A short time. Depends on your perspective. It’s an interesting amount of time, because it is long enough to get familiar and settle into routines, but short enough to want to make the most of every moment.

We have a big monthly calendar posted on our kitchen wall and I just noticed that as of this week we are half way through our trip. This set me off on a flurry of planning how to squeeze in all the things we want to do, places we want to go and people we want to see before we have to go home (right at the bottom of the last page of that wall chart). The white spaces are quickly filling, but I am trying hard to preserve some of them with nothing written on them, for it is often these moments of nothing in the diary that lead to unexpected discoveries, relaxed happy days in the sun, improptu trips and all sorts of fun.

Kyoto is good for me. It has made me slow down, reflect, soak up the beauty around, head out somewhere new almost every single day. Look up, look down, look around. Look inside. Take time to stand still.

The ideas I pushed away before we headed out here (because I was so crazily busy) have been invited in, and are currently washing around in my head. Now is not the time for filtering, that will come later. Now is the time for letting them all flow forward, and seeing what emerges. And there is no better place to do it than here, on an adventure, with the luxury of time…

Engagement story

Posted on 2012-06-06 at 9:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

A month ago today I got engaged and have been beaming ever since. Many of you asked for more details of the engagement, so here you go!

We began the day (my birthday) with a train ride across the beautiful Hozukyo Gorge. These carp-shaped koinobori flags are hung out to celebrate Children’s Day. (Excuse the blur – the train was moving!)

And then for a stroll through the bamboo forest of Arashiyama (‘Storm Mountain’)…

Totally oblivious to what was coming, I was happily snapping away with my camera. If I look back at those photos now, my man looks a little nervous… We found a gorgeous Japanese garden built lovingly over 30 years by a film star from the fifties, designed to offer a different view at every turn.

As we were walking through the lush greenery, my man was telling me a story. And then suddenly in it he talked about asking a ‘very important question’. Then there was silence. I had been taking photos ahead of him, and turned around to find him on one knee, asking if I would marry him! (See here)

It was all so perfect. After lots of crying and laughing we went to a little tea house in the corner of the garden for green tea and cake, and started planning the rest of our lives together…

For the love of cafes (Kyoto edition) part 1

Posted on 2012-05-29 at 9:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Kimono-clad ladies in the cafe of Doshisha University

One of the upsides of living in a shoebox is that you have to get out! If you want somewhere lovely to read, or write, or think, you have to metaphorically ‘get up off the sofa’ (although we don’t have a sofa!) and find somewhere. And Kyoto is the perfect place for this – I think it might just be a city of cafes to rival Paris. I am on a mission to discover all the hidden gems while I am here. I thought I would share a few pics of those I have discovered so far…

Coo Cafe (above and below)

Les Freres Moutaux boulangerie and cafe

Iyemon Salon (more on this later – I am in love!)

Meet me there?

Where is your favourite cafe?

Stuff, or a lack of it

Posted on 2012-05-23 at 9:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

No rucksack space for accessories like these…

When we headed out East we put our entire house in storage and travelled with just a rucksack and a small piece of hand luggage each. Not bad for more than half a year away! This obviously meant we had to clear out or leave a lot of ‘stuff’ behind, much of which I don’t miss at all. I have been thinking about all the stuff we surround ourselves with just because everyone else has it, and wondering about what I actually really miss.

There are a few things I do miss, being in a tiny matchbox of an apartment out here…

* Sofa (means I go to a lot of cafes)

* Oven/hob with more than one ring (means we eat out a lot)

* Garden (means I gravitate towards any public green space)

And a few things I brought that I am grateful for:

* iPad (because I get lost all the time)

* Decaf teabags

* Marmite

But there are also some things we don’t have that I don’t miss…

* Mobile phone

* TV

* Car

(* I still haven’t decided whether or not I miss my GHD straighteners…)

Can you imagine life without them? Maybe you could try it one day? I wonder what you would miss if you went away for a long while?

The 1000-gated shrine

Posted on 2012-05-19 at 9:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

I decided to take my man on a magical mystery tour to introduce him to some of Kyoto’s most famous sites. Despite being a tourist myself I really don’t like touristy places, but most places that have a lot of tourists are swamped for a good reason, and Fushimi Inari is no different. We opted to go on a weekday, when everyone else was at work, and had most of the mountainside to ourselves.

Fushimi Inari is quite an extraordinary place. A few miles south of Kyoto, it is home to over 1000 red torii shrine gates, which weave around the mountainside.

‘Inari’ is the name of the god of rice, a diet staple and fundamental part of Japanese life. There are thousands of Inari shrines across the country but the one at Fushimi is the most famous.

It was founded twelve centuries ago, and remains an active part of the community. Nearly every single one of the 1000+ cinnabar red shrine gates are ‘sponsored’ by local businesses.

But when a company’s name is written in beautiful flowing kanji lettering, it somehow doesn’t feel commercial at all. Each of them offer prayers for prosperity – and some of them pay as much as $150,000 for the privilege!

I visited with my parents many years ago and we purchased a tiny red model gate from the shrine shop and hid it in the forest, off the mountain path.

We searched for it but couldn’t find it this time round – I like to think that a cheeky wild monkey moved it and uses it as the entrance to his little house in the trees…

Making tough decisions

Posted on 2012-05-15 at 9:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

These past few weeks I have had to make some really tough decisions. I suppose deciding to up sticks and move to Japan for several months would be a big decision for many people, although for me it was fairly easy – it felt like time for another adventure. But some of the other decisions I have made recently have felt a lot tougher.

Like the London 2012 decision. Seven years ago, when the IOC announced that London had won the right to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London in 2012, I decided in that moment I wanted to be the liaison officer who looks after the Japanese team. A team liaison officer is the contact person between the Organising Committee and a particular nation’s athletes and officials. It is a full on job and you are essentially on call 24 hours, but it is incredibly rewarding – you play a key role in helping everything run smoothly for the team. It is also emotional – you share their disappointments and elation as the results come in. I have done this job for many British and Japanese teams at various major sports events including the Winter Olympics and World Athletics Championships, but the Olympics in my home country was really the pinnacle.

With that goal in mind I applied and went through a very long selection process. I didn’t hear anything for a while, and we decided to make plans to come out here. But then, when we had already bought our tickets out here, and my man had already taken his sabattical from work, I was offered the exact job I wanted – as the team liaison officer for the Japan Men’s National Football Team at London 2012.

What to do?

In order to do take the job I would have had to leave Japan about three weeks after arriving, for various meetings and workshops, and then just a few weeks later go back for up to a month. It would have meant leaving my man stranded and alone just after we had got here, and then abandoning him again shortly after, when this was supposed to be our adventure. It would have meant spending every moment since I got here swotting up on medical terminology and reading every football magazine going. It would have meant a lot of pressure to polish my language skills very quickly to be able to serve the team appropriately.

In essence, it would have completely changed this experience of Japan for both me and for my man. I have absolutely no doubt that it would be an incredible experience, but this adventure here and now is a really important experience too.

So I turned it down. You probably think I’m crazy. Part of me still thinks I am crazy. But another part knows it was an important decision.

For years before Do What You love I was involved in the sports industry in a number of ways, and still get involved in certain projects. But for a number of reasons I made a big shift to this new life a couple of years ago, and this feels much more like me. And I know that by making this choice I have made space for other opportunities – and made this particular opportunity available to someone else. I guess we often forget that – by saying no to things we can actually do other people a favour.

I feel like for the first time ever I have truly chosen this new path over the old one. Chosen my home life over my work life. Chosen the slow lane over the fast lane. Chosen quiet over glamour. Chosen this adventure over that one. I am still not quite sure how I feel about this tough decision, but I am going to let things unfold as they will and have faith that it was the right choice to make at this point in my life.

***

Do you want to do more of what you love? If you fancy an adventure of your own why not join me for the Do What You Love e-course? Shake things up, expand your comfort zone, nurture your playful spirit and feed your creative soul. Identify your passion and make it a greater part of your every day life! Find out more and register here. Class has just started but you can still squeeze in if you are quick!

Our new neighbourhood

Posted on 2012-04-30 at 1:00 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

So here we are in Kyoto. Week 3 in our new home. I like to say it is ‘bijou’. I tend not to add that our entire apartment is about the same size as our kitchen at home… So it is small but we are loving it. We have a bakery next door, a tatami mat weaver down the road, a sweet pottery shop a couple of streets away and the famous Nishijin textile district just a stone’s throw away. I have so much to share from our first weeks here but I thought I would begin with a little tour of our new neighbourhood…

Won’t you pop round for some green tea?

Quiet in the mountains

Posted on 2012-04-18 at 7:08 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

There was nothing but the sound of a waterfall, the wind in the trees, and our steps on the the rock as we climbed up the forested mountainside to Yamadera, a temple built close to the sky.

The last of the winter snow hugged the temple buildings, and the sun peeped through the clouds.

Up and up and up we climbed, hundreds of steps, thousands of breaths, drinking in fresh air and carrying big smiles.

We passed ornamental stone creations adorned with paper fortunes.

We met this little fella, and stopped for a chat.

On this weekday afternoon the place was deserted, and we were left free to climb and roam, and claim this wooden platform as our own. From high up on the rocks we stared out over the valley and soaked up the silence.

I love this place.

***

If you fancy an adventure of your own, why not join me for the Do What You Love e-course? Find out more and register here!