This is an old saying that was told to me many years ago as I was building my photography studio business and “tree trunks” kept falling in my way and I had climb over them, brush myself off and continue on the journey that was to be my life and the roots of my professional life.

“Honesty Alert!”

I have over 5000 Facebook friends, the truth is most of them know me better than I know them. But there are many things they don’t know about me. Things I have kept private and to myself. As the years have passed I no longer feel a need to tell my “life story” to new friends who didn’t live it with me. But sitting down today to write a long overdue blog post makes me feel like sharing what has been going on and how it relates to us all and the past and the future. Todays post is not about my art or photography or what I teach or what I learn…it’s about lifes lessons we all learn the hard way.

So much happens to us and there is little we can do to change it.

Where Have I Been?

Well, the truth is that one of those things happened to me. Or rather to my best other half, Michael. In February on an ordinary night in an ordinary house, while watching ordinary tv, our lives were turned upside down with the few words of “I don’t feel good” while waving his hand over his chest. After the 911 call, the seven good looking emt guys in our living room, a fire engine, an ambulance and two unmarked cars on our small street, we started a new journey. To a triple bypass for his heart. The week before the Barbara Walters special about major heart surgery was on and I flipped the channel to something else. Now I had to live it with my loved one. The time in hospital saga is too long to go through here, but the bottom line is we are so lucky that we researched Asheville and it’s hospitals before moving here. Their heart unit is incredible.Every person we dealt with was amazing. And he survived it. And so did I. The call to 911 was made on February 10th and the surgery was the 15th and they sent him home on the 21st.

That is they sent him home to my care and feeding, plus the Care Partners that do home health. But I was living this as much as he was. After my own colon cancer surgery in December 2009 I thought we were home free. Now I saw that I had to live this with him. To get his diabetes under control, the gadzillion medications he was taking and “just us” to take care of us. So that is where I have been.

Life Lessons

I remember the first time I complained and whined and I wailed “That’s NOT Fair!” stamping my foot and was told “Life is NOT Fair”….ah, how true. But life is for living and while things get in the way, we must move on. While Michael was in the hospital for his heart surgery, my good friend tried to hide from me that her beautiful 18 year old daughter was in a life threatening car accident. She was dealing with that three hours from me and I felt helpless to help her when I needed all the help and strength I could get to deal with my own problems. Thankfully, both her daughter and Michael are on the road to recovery and both will be fine. It was like time was standing still.

Another time things didn’t seem fair was when my first baby was born in 1974 and he entered the world with all the drama that a first time mother dreads and fears. He was a beautiful baby, but born with multiple problems that changed our lives forever. After eight years we were again put into shock when he suddenly passed and was gone from our lives.

In between our lives were full of joy having another beautiful and healthy baby boy and the decision we made to take our healthy baby and run, closing down the factory and moving on with our lives.

Many, many other dramas,dreams that came true and some that didn’t. Dramas that make up life and death happened through the years. I successfully kept my private life separated from my professional life and enjoyed sharing my portrait clients lives and celebrating the big and little things in their lives and being able to document their images and create their family history was an incredible feeling.
Which Brings me To:

I truly love blogging here and sharing what I learned yesterday to pass it on to you all, but sometimes we have to disappear and regroup and clear our heads as life comes at us from the blindside. We have all been there. We have all done that. I needed a little time to get away. Clear my head, think about what I want to share with you all and gather up the links, webinars and art techniques that I can share. Thanks for understanding and listening. I enjoy all of your stories and sharing your lives on Facebook and Twitter…but now….it’s
BACK TO WORK!

Aah Asheville

Here we go ASHEVILLE counting down to the gallery opening of my newest Asheville,NC paintings. Hopefully you will be amazed and thrilled and you can even pick up a matted print also of your favorite place in the whole world.

We need you to come to the Opening November 27th at Ananda Studio in downtown Asheville directly across the street from Wasabi. It’s Thanksgiving weekend and you know you are going to want to be downtown!

We will have some Bruisin Ales beer and some snacks and of course all the ART you could want. Holiday Gifts is what we are thinking! We have worked really hard on getting this event off the ground and now all we need is you. There will be awesome LIVE music from Chris and you have got to check out his solo on the resonator! Come on out friends in AVL and enjoy the holiday weekend with us.

You can also check out the Facebook invite and respond there to the invite which is public. BRING FRIENDS!

(Don’t make me feel stupid sitting all alone with my family!)

I have successfully avoided having my first baseline colonoscopy for the last two years since we moved to Asheville.
In Miami my primary doctor never sent me for one. (Still don’t know why that was. He sent me for mammograms and pap smears, why not the colonosopy) As soon as we got to Asheville my primary sent me for one that I ignored and canceled the appointment. Then at my checkup in October my primary really put it to me that it’s time to bite the bullet and do it. Since I had met my deductible for the year it seemed like I should. But even the day before I almost canceled again, but nope, I went.

So the details were that they found two tiny polyps. So that is good, right? That was Dec 9th and my doctor said he would send it to pathology and all looked good and I should hear in a week or two on the pathology.

Two days later on Friday at 4pm the phone rang and my doctor was on the other end…Not Good! Pathology called him because they found that one of the tiny polyps was cancer and a particularly nasty kind of carcinoma. He gave me a referral to a surgeon to be seen asap on the following Tuesday morning. I go see the surgeon and he schedules me for surgery the following week on December 23rd. He actually was going on his holiday vacation that day, but instead he wanted to come in that morning and do my surgery before he left on vacation. He thought it was that important.

So now the questions you are all asking in your heads will be answered. The carcinoma they found was so early it actually was not even a “stage”. The surgery was called a Right Colectomy which is the complete removal of the right ascending colon and then the large colon is reattached. The colon lymph nodes in that area are also all removed to be tested by pathology. This does NOT involve a colostomy which is when an external bag is required for waste. What I had is a completely contained surgery and there was no external bag needed. The surgery was all done laproscopic and staples closed my belly up.

I was in the hospital from Dec 23 to Dec 29th. Without going in more details, to be brief…ouch, ugh and tired. Soooo glad when I got to go home and two days after getting home my appetite returned. I was released on a regular diet and anything I want to eat, go ahead. (YAY!!)

Right before I was released from the hospital we got the awesome news that the pathology report from surgery was back and it’s GONE! No more colon cancer. All gone and after full recovery, move on with my life. No chemo needed! ( MORE YAY!)

The only bad part is that I had to cancel any events that involved travel or being away from home for at least a minimum of four weeks home recovery to let my insides heal despite my feeling good on the outside. Saw my surgeon and had the staples out and am recovering quite nicely Had to cancel our trip to Nashville for PPA convention and my trip to London, England to speak at SWPP. There was no way I could make either of those trips. Not a problem. We did not have anything planned for February and by March I will be perfect!

So the good side is that I do NOT have colon cancer now and I did not cancel my colonoscopy appointment. I get to spend weeks now putting together new tutorials, catching up my old work I am behind on, doing new paintings, updating the forum and my websites and I look at this as a gift that I was given to stay home and enjoy the enforced relaxed time to be the best I can be for the future and to put together an amazing kick ass program for WPPI Master Class!

I kept this quiet because it was the holidays and above all, it is very important that there are no rumors about my health that are not accurate. Today I am fantastic and am strong and thankful that this was all caught so early. So you know….I had ZERO symptoms, am in great health otherwise. Low cholesterol, low blood pressure and take no medications other than for sinus and thyroid. Doctors always comment on my good health and I always credit good red wine with being the secret to my success!

So here is to your good health in the New Year! Go for your checkups. Listen to your doctors! They already told me that if I had waited six months longer to get my colonoscopy the results would have been drastically different. Think about that!

My good wishes for you all to have even more success in the coming year than ever before and I am glad I will be here to see it all happen for you and to share my future plans and the steps I am taking to get my art out there more and also selling online, We have a lot of good things to look forward to and I am grateful for my online family and all our friends both online and in Asheville who have been incredibly helpful and supportive to Michael and I. The love and support of my family goes without saying and to those who I asked to keep this quiet over the holidays, thank you for honoring my wishes.  My thanks to the fabulous nurses at Mission Hospital who really do listen and care about their patients and don’t cut corners on their care.

So that is the truth about where I have been! Let’s move on and enjoy the year! I am ready to ROCK it!!

Marilyn

I will be speaking Monday 16th in the Millers Professional Imaging booth and showing easy techniques for doing digital paintings and creating true digital art. Our new You Tube channel already has many videos uploaded so be sure to subscribe there to get the latest uploads. I am planning one or more short video lessons each week. Look for new pictures from this event both on my FACEBOOK page and on my Flickr site.  Hoping to have some new VEGAS paintings from this trip also! Stop by and say hello and introduce yourself!

Touch of Fall 08 Painting, originally uploaded by marilynsholin.

Early Fall in Asheville painting here is a Touch of Fall as it starts spreading across the area. Tomorrow we will take a Blue Ridge Parkway drive to get better early fall foliage photos!

Finally Art Hung, originally uploaded by marilynsholin.

Finally hung Gabriel Shaffers painting and Cynthias triple sculpture ceramic. Have another of Cynthias in another room. This spot for them is temporary until we finish the house renovation. Right now they are hanging in our studio. Visit Gabriels flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrielshaffer/

You can view more of Cynthias ceramic art at http://www.cynthialeeceramics.com/index.html