Thursday, January 24, 2013

My Lesson About Karma...

I have had occasion to think about the subject of karma and how it works versus how you would think it works....case in point:
I wanted to raise money for a particular charity that rescues horses, as they have recently been and are still currently taking in and taking care of 10s of 20s of starved animals...
I donated several items and put them on a non-profit auction site and began advertising this on facebook to generate interest...100% of the proceeds to go to the rescue organization.  nothing was happening after a couple of days, so I thought, wow, what can I do?  So I decided that I would revise the listings to include free shipping to try and entice people....nothing.  
I tossed and turned all night about this, and got up this morning with a better understanding of what was happening....
1.  this was never personal, though I was taking it personally
2.  nothing good ever comes from whoring out your work, your art
3.  I was accomplishing nothing so much as hurting myself and my karma, 
    certainly not helping the rescue organization.  
Now this may or may not have been the 'right' thing to do, but I have removed the listings, removed all of the facebook references, and called it a day.  I will send the rescue organization some of my profit from the market I will be participating in over the coming weekend.  just a donation from me to them, not from any type of fundraising.  
From now on, I will make specific pieces for specific auctions or causes, hand them over, and let the rest take its course.  I am an artist, not an activist.  I can't make people care about something they don't want to care about or even know about.  I have to change to and keep to the proper rules of karma from now on, and I will.  This little experience will be a reminder for me.  The order of things is the order of things, and it isn't negotiable.  It is what karma is all about.
Now, I will get back to what I do best, and get busy in my studio!!
Much peace to you...