A Pause For Station Identification

It's so much easier to keep a habit going rather than trying to resurrect one, but that's where I am at with my art. I did not draw or paint while I was on vacation. It was a good vacation and sometimes it's good to take a break. However I wasn't home very long before I got distracted and consumed by something else.

When I look back on this year, I think the theme will either be addressing or attacking secrets or tying up loose ends in parts of my life.

The latest one is that I took a DNA test, recently. Given the lab processing time on their website, I was expecting results towards the end of the year. Instead, they showed up on Thursday. As an adoptee with only vague, non-identifying information until this point, all I can say is that I fell down a rabbit hole, a reference to Alice in Wonderland,which fits since it's all been pretty surreal.

I started this journey just wanting to know more about where I came from and in less than one week, I have some answers and information. Through the DNA testing site, I connected with one of my matches and it turns out this person has been researching his family's genealogy for 30 years and documenting it, extensively.

While I am not 100% certain, I am pretty darn certain that I've identified my biological mother. She died several years ago and she was the last member of her immediate family. However, if I go back to my grandfather's brother and two sisters, there are a lot of people out there. It's a story of immigration and I don't think any of the rest of this family is in this country. By the way, I'm 2nd generation of this country on the maternal side.

I'll get back to drawing and painting, soon. Right now, I just don't have the brain power for it, since I can feel my brain working on processing this new information about my roots.

There's also the paternal side to research. That won't be as easy, but I do have some clues from the DNA test and the information about my maternal side. I'm not planning on starting on this until late December or January.

While the last 6 days have a been a roller coaster. Yesterday, when I was drive between work sites, I had the most powerful feeling of gratitude wash over me. My partner is so supportive and my friends are also supportive. One of them has been helping me figure things out, including creating a cheat sheet of how family relationships work along with the genetic stuff, since I am really clueless on this stuff.

Stay tuned. Art will be back on the agenda soon.