Dolly did not wait for permission to become Dolly. Her life reminds me that authenticity is not something we earn after becoming successful. Authenticity may be one of the very things that allows us to create a meaningful version of success in the first place.

Whether dreams are messages from somewhere beyond us or simply our minds sorting through what we have been carrying, this one felt less like a prediction and more like a mirror... For much of my life, fear and scarcity were my default settings. I worried about money, panicked about my health, questioned whether I mattered, and tried to fix everything for everyone around me. I became very good at shrinking myself to fit inside rooms that were never designed to hold all of me.

Creative work is often romanticized as inspiration, color, freedom, and beautiful finished paintings hanging beneath gallery lights. The reality is usually much messier. There are deadlines, logistics, wrapping artwork, carrying canvases, editing presentations, answering emails, promoting events, making decisions, second-guessing those decisions, and trying to remember whether you actually ate lunch somewhere in the middle of it all.

Have you ever caught your mind spinning a frightening story about the future—only to discover that the story wasn’t true? Our minds are astonishingly creative. Unfortunately, they don’t always use that creativity in our favor. Given an unanswered question or an uncertain future, the mind can quickly fill the empty space with everything that might go wrong.

This week tested me. Between personal struggles and creative challenges, I found myself tangled in fear and self-doubt. It’s a vulnerable place—one that many artists (and humans) know all too well.

I didn't vanish... just taking a breath to reflect, relax, and re-emerge to my next best self.