Are You An Upcycle Genius?

I love people that can see good in the broken. Let me put it this way, if people wouldn’t have attempted it with me, I would have never made it THIS far. Responses like: “I’m incapable”, “Fed UP”, or straight-up “Unwilling”(to deal with you), would have all been valid reasons to NOT trust the untrustworthy character that I had become. These healing individuals, were able to separate the disease from the man, and see through the rough weathering of my addiction and the tarnish of my nefarious past.

I was “UpCycled” AND “Re-Purposed”!

They did for me, what others had done for them, by loving me back to health with God, and A LOT of Spiritual Elbow Grease. I have been blessed with the opportunity to live several lives in one lifetime because certain individuals did not  give up on me. I wasn’t thrown away. I was “UpCycled” AND “Re-Purposed”! Some people see me as a newer improved version of myself, those that are still “High,” just think I’m boring without the substances, and the rest just know that I’m different. Any way you slice it, I’m not rusting in a cell or rotting in the ground (to be completely graphic). I am being (re)used for a greater purpose. Every day this side of the grass is a good one, when I’m able to take what I learned yesterday, and use it to be a better me,today! Reinventing myself to grow and go with the flow, for the good of change, is a great thing, vs my old way of just faking a chamaleon-like change, for fear of not being accepted/liked.

I am being (re)used for a greater purpose.

If you know me, you know I LOVE to Create stuff. It’s been a hobby and even a career for me at times since I was young-er. But daaaang, the things I see Creatives and Artisans around the world making today is INSANE! It makes me want to have a five thousand square foot shop with different departments, EVERY carpentry tool in existence, paint and stain bays, glass melting kilns, a forge or two, cnc machines, shopbots, ceramic throwing wheels, glass blowing equipment, leather tools, DTG printing set ups, embroidery machines, lathes, laser tools, plasma cutters, mig-tig-stick-and flux cored arc welding set ups, bending machines… I’m obsessed, and I could go on, but I won’t.  So, let me back up a bit…let’s check the word:

UP-CYCLE verb:

Reuse (discarded objects or material) in such a way as to create a product of higher value than the original. 

You might be the kind of genius that can turn a rear end of vintage car into a killer new love seat, or maybe you make Adirondack chairs out of old skateboards; all upcycling is genius, and the ideas are endless. I’ve seen people do some of the coolest and most simple projects such as taking a hand pump from a discarded product, pairing it with a polished off old booze bottle with the same type of threads, and “BOOM” a sweet J.D. soap dispenser. I tend to LOVE the items with real depth, weight, and emotional backstory, like furniture made from the floorboards of your childhood home or the jewelers that can turn your sobriety coins into rings..

Let your CREATIVITY SOAR!!