Vinton native . . . Vinton enthusiast . . . artist . . . writer . . . and happily original. 

       The creative genes run deep in my family.  My dad, aunts, cousins, grandpa, and great-grandma were all artistic and creative.  I'm sure the creative strand runs even further back . . . even if my knowledge of it does not.  So it's no wonder that during my high school years the course load I took consisted of some years having three to four different art classes. . . a day!  With such a hefty panache for art, I surprised even myself when I didn't "officially" pursue art in post-secondary education.

        But what I did pursue also had just as weighty of a "panache".  The degrees I acquired were in Theology as well as Sign Language Interpreting.  Even though these weren't artistic in nature, I found I was able to express myself in many aspects of life.  I've found that once you inhale creativity into your soul, it permeates every aspect of your being.  This creativity reveals itself in other ways, it's apart of you.  It infiltrates into everything to which you set your hand.  For me, one of these channels is writing.  You can find and follow some of my chronicles on my blog Random Thoughts at melodysnow.blogspot.com.  There you can also find my personally transformational experiment under the tab Simply Thankful.

        Even though I'm currently waxing towards the writer in me, I also continue to delve into art with painting and drawing.  So I would just say . . . stay tuned, you don't know where the journey may lead.

          Here's my disclaimer, I direct it towards writing, but it's true for every area of life: 

        ~ I write for myself.  The things I write are for the encouragement of MY own soul, not to persuade you, but in the simple hopes that maybe someone out there might recognize the things in their own lives for which to be thankful.

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