A “Master Builder”?...
Life Path Number: 22 “Your Life-Path number is probably the most influential numerological aspect to be considered, David, and represents who you are at the time of birth. It indicates specific traits and will likely be active and influential throughout your lifetime. It is the overall number that determines much of what will be important to you and how you will handle things as they come. If your Life-Path number is TWENTY-TWO, yours is the highest and most powerful number there is. A Master Vibration number of TWENTY-TWO is quite rare and this path can be the most difficult to live up to and fulfill. TWENTY-TWOS are endowed with many powers and can reach most any height. They are often referred to as the "Master Builders" as the efforts of people with this Life-Path are almost always enjoyed by all. TWENTY-TWOS are movers and shakers. They are the leaders and role models in our society. Key words/qualities associated with a TWENTY-TWO Life-Path are large endeavors, powerful force, leadership, and the master builder.”
I have taken the above quote from an appendix in my book “A Journey...” (pages 80 - 83) http://davidthebodypainter.com/category/about-me/ If you read the book, you will see that my life has been anything BUT “normal”. Personally I think it has all been very cool, even if sometimes (actually often) difficult, as the above quote clearly suggests. The most consistantly amazing aspect to me has been how many twists and turns the path has taken, usually in directions I would never have dreamed, imagined, and certainly would not have not planned myself, very often with experiences, choices and decisions coming to me from angles I could not have foreseen. Honestly, for the most part, I had not a clue what I was doing, or what was going to happen. All I CAN tell you though is “It DID happen!” In fact, all “the BEST stuff” has happened this way! I have so many stories I could recount, more than you will find in the book. That would be a good place to start to “get a clue” though, if you are interested and would have the time and inclination. This brings me to “here and now” though, and why I am writing this item. It concerns what I am thinking could very well be “the next step” for me, and how it seems to have all come about. I hope that you can bear with me as I try to explain. Thanks. Two quotes from “The Good Book” that seem to be thematic throughout my life are the following: “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7) And... “We know that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28) It seems that the further I go along the path of life, the more faith is required to do so, and thus by default the less “sight”! That is “tough enough” even under “normal” circumstances, but “it gets worse/better”! Ha ha ha! The counter-balance is the “all things working together for good” part! Get it? As I have written before, all the very best things that have happened in my life so far have happened to me here, in Iceland. “Who would have thunk it?” Just when I thought “it's all over for me now”, a whole new life started. This happened from “day one” after I arrived here, and several times since, especially in meeting my love, Imba, and having our little girl, Kristín. One of the other biggest surprises though was finding myself becoming a body-painter/artist, believe it or not. This has become very much one of my greatest interests now, especially as it has enabled me to meet and make many, many friends, and continues to be an important, even vital, aspect of my life. However, “it does not pay the bills”, as many might think.
For a while, after finishing with helping a charity here, I had a driving job delivering pizzas. This came to an end when the financial crash of 2008 took hold, and I lost that job in 2009. I have been “unemployed” since. This has not really been much of a problem actually, until now that is, as there has been plenty to keep me busy in the meantime, including attending some courses in Icelandic, as well as another course just completed, which brings me, conveniently, to “the next step”... To “set the stage” for how I see what I am going to explain, I will tell two short stories (very short). At one point in my past I had the desire to have a guitar. I am not a musician as such, but I know quite a few chords, and I wanted to be able to play my own accompaniment to some songs I liked singing. I prayed for one, and someone gave me a guitar strap! Now you will probably think “Well, that doesn't help much!”, but that is not how I was looking at it myself. I thought “Well, if God supplied a strap, then the rest must surely follow!” Believe it or not, next came a pack of guitar strings, then a guitar case, closely followed by, finally.... yup, you guessed it – the guitar! Second story... I had already experienced body-painting in pubs and bars down-town in a small town in the UK while on a visit there. After returning to Iceland I would often walk along Laugavegur, the main street down-town, where most of the bars and pubs and clubs are situated here in Reykjavik. At that time there was a bar called “Nelly's”, and the striking thing about this place is that all the windows to the building had artistic drawings of famous people or pieces of art in them. I thought “Wow, maybe that would be a great place to try doing bodypainting down-town, on the weekends!?” But “how to go about it?” God said “Don't worry. It will happen. I will work it out!” Here's how He did!... I was helping with fund-raising for a charity in a shopping mall called “Kringlan” on the weekends at the time. I was doing face-painting, but had developed a style of my own that worked well with teenagers and older people. One of the designs that became very popular was a little butterfly, painted on the cheek in the corner of the eye (on women of course), and one day a young woman asked for one of these. I asked if she was going to a party, and she said no, that she was going to wear it to work, in a bar! A couple of weeks later a friend was visiting at home, and she happened to mention that she had seen a girl at the place where she worked wearing a painted butterfly on her cheek. I said that I had painted it, and asked where she worked? It was “Nelly's”! I told her that I had thought about asking if I could paint there on the weekends, and she said “would you like me to ask the boss for you?”, to which I of course agreed! An interview followed, and I got the permission! That was the beginning of something I have been able to do for the last nine years now, starting at “Nelly's”, moving on later to “Gaukur á stöng”, and eventually arriving at “Hressingarskálinn”, where I have been painting for some six years since! (This is also where and how I met Imba!) Bringing this all up-to-date, recently I have been trying to figure out what I can do for work here. There are many reasons why it has not been an easy task. For one thing, there hasn't been much available that I am “qualified” for. Also, and this is a huge factor, most of the last forty years of my life have been spent as a missionary, abroad in Asia, and although I have a huge wealth of experience, in many, many fields, this is not all as well documented and certified as to be recognised as such here in Iceland. My CV and cover letter are actually impressive, and many who have seen them, or read or heard of my experiences, are quite awed by everything I have accomplished, but my best efforts to find something to do in the social arena here so far have not fallen on much fertile ground, sad to say. It has been more than a little frustrating. Which brings me to something that just happened, and quite “out-of-the-blue”, “as usual”, and this is what I am getting to now... The course I took recently was actually something I thought would be very useful and helpful. It was all about “how to look for, and apply for, work/a job”. I was particularly interested in this because, seriously, I had never really been “in the job/labour market” before, so I really didn't have a clue as to how to go about finding “my niche in society”, at least in what might normally be considered the “traditional” sense. This was important, and for two very good reasons. One, I will be turning fifty nine years of age next January, and you could easily probably think of me as “a late-starter”. And two, although I have been entitled to some social security benefits (not much I can assure you), these are likely to come to an end very soon. (This has something to do with the Icelandic laws pertaining to these, and unless an extension is granted, which is still under discussion in Parliament, I could very well lose these at the beginning of the New Year). So, “What to do?”
I can drive a car. I don't have the license for larger vehicles though. (This is why/how I got to delivering pizzas for a while previously, which served a purpose for its time, but I would hardly call it “a career choice”). There is not much call for the kind of driving jobs that I would like to have, such as a long-distance courier service, or as a chauffeur. Even most of these kinds of jobs are better suited to younger people, who can get around quickly, and they are quite temporary in nature as well, which is not what I need or want. My “expertise” has been as a missionary, for forty years now. I have a very broad range of experience in this field and have travelled extensively, spending twenty years in Asia especially. I have the credentials for this, being a certified ordained minister, however these are not recognised here. I have looked into trying to find something to do in the social arena, writing to heads of the Social Sciences and Theology Departments of the University, even to the Reykjavik City Government and the Icelandic Red Cross. To be recognised as a minister in Iceland however, or as an accredited social worker in any major field, both require several years of study, resulting in a University Degree or the equivalent. If I were an Icelandic citizen (which I am looking into right now actually), I would be entitled to student loans that could cover the costs for this, however at this late stage of the game I wonder if it would even be worth it, as I would “graduate” at the ripe old age of sixty three years old, at the earliest! Whew! So again, “What to do?” Well..... While attending the course just mentioned, one of those very “unexpected events” occured, along similar lines to the stories I shared above! One aspect of the course was that a business lady came along one day to give a talk on what she looks for in prospective employees, as an employer herself. This lady has successfully run her own business for some thirty years. I had no idea what her business was at first, as she went around the room, asking each of us there what our aspirations were, what were “our dreams”? While doing this she passed out brochures about her business, as an example of what she herself had accomplished. Just before getting to me she asked one of the younger girls what she wanted to do, to which the girl said she wanted to be a tattoo artist! The next thing the lady did took me completely by surprise, because this lady was obviously a well-to-do, welldressed, conservative-looking woman. She said to the girl “I can help you with that! In Iceland you need to have taken a course and passed certification before you can practice tattooing here. Here is the number of the man you need to speak to about this. He is the top tattooist in Iceland and responsible for this training!” Whew! Right away I asked for the number too, but this is not my point. This is what happened next... By now a copy of the lady's brochure had reached me. It was all about the company that she had set up that trains people in all different kinds of beautician work, but the thing that got my attention was that one department was for make-up artists! This includes not only make-up work for things like fashion shows, beauty salons and the like, including air-brushing techniques, but body-painting and make-up work for theatres, television and films! (One of the sample photos in the brochure is even of a girl I had painted before myself, when seeing her down-town on one of her frequent visits there! And talk about “signs”, I saw this same girl again, the very next weekend after this!) The lady was then asking me what I wanted to do, what was my interest? So I told her I do body-painting myself, had gotten into it since coming to Iceland, and had been painting people down-town on a casual basis for many years now. I told her what I had just seen in her brochure, and that until that moment I had been torn between other things that hadn't worked out for various reasons, but that now I thought I had found something that would suit me and “fit” me perfectly! Her response was “Well, now you can follow your dream! It is within your reach! Go for it!” She explained that although usually women train for this kind of work, her company had had two men recently, and that fluent Icelandic is not even required, as usually very little has to be said, and everyone in the industry speaks English anyway. She also said that there was great demand for make-up artists right now, especially in film-making, and that even travel abroad for this could result! Basically, after just fourteen weeks of training (Monday – Thursdays, 09:00 – 13:00), with a full make-up kit to work with provided (and to keep), and a diploma at the end of it, I could be an officially recognised and qualified make-up artist! See here: http://www.snyrtiakademian.is/fordunarskolinn/ (use Google Translate if you are not Icelandic) I can DO this! I ALREADY do this! AND (according to just about everyone I paint) I AM VERY GOOD AT IT! See here for some examples: http://davidthebodypainter.com/ The training would augment what I do already, adding a lot more diversity to my already existing repertoire of expertise, while at the same time allowing me to work in a medium I enjoy, with lots of possible prospects that could come out of it!
My desire is to be “recognised” as “qualified”, in something I already do to some extent, and be able to work at it, being able to earn a living in something I actually love doing, and that I am even already quite good at! I can free-lance as a make-up artist, start my own business if I want to, and/or be hired on a regular basis by theatres, studios or film companies as my skills become better known and acknowledged. The best part of all of this is, I will be properly paid for it! “A man's gift (or talent) maketh room for him...” (Proverbs 18:16) The many people I know just from painting down-town all tell me I “should charge more”, that what I do already is worth much more than I ask. So many people have told me “You are an artist!” Most also ask if I do tattoos “for real”, and say that they would come to me for this if I did! I have declined this route so far, however now knowing what is possible, and who to contact, perhaps this would be another “next step” later? (There is a lot of money in even just “make-up tattooing”, such as eye-brows, the lady told us!) So, here's “my appeal”, and it comes in three parts... --- If you are “a person of faith”, as many of my friends and family are (in TFI especially), then I would appreciate any and all prayers for this endeavor. Thank you SO much! --- If you are “a person of means”, “small or great”, and would like to help me with something towards this towards covering the costs of taking the course for becoming a qualified make-up artist that is, then, thank you SO much! (I will provide information and details for how this can be done further down) --- If you are experienced, knowledgable, have wisdom or expertise, or just have ideas and suggestions that could contribute to helping me pull this off (such as how “crowd-funding” works), especially including “knowing someone who knows someone” - in any way, then, thank you SO much! (If you should fall into any of the above categories, then please feel free to get in touch, “as soon as.......” Thanks!) Before saying any more, I should state the three reasons why I have shared this appeal with everyone... --- I do not have any “personal savings stashed away”, anywhere, that I can call on. --- I do not have “a pension fund” of any kind that I can use either. (***Neither of these have been possible to accumulate as a missionary who has “lived by faith” for most of my life. Sorry, but this is just a simple fact.***) --- If there is no change to the current law here in Iceland, the meager source of what could be called “a regular income” which I have received over recent years could come to an abrupt end by next year. (This was actually only 80% of what is considered the minimum in “social security” payments, just in case anyone is interested!) The next course is scheduled to start in January (18th). If I should receive little or no response over the coming month or so, then it is unlikely that I will be able to enroll in the course and partake of this opportunity, unless some unforeseen “miracle” takes place that is! Ways anyone can transfer funds to me for this project... --- If you are a TFI member, you can do so with your next monthly report if you wish. Here are my details: TFI login name: emmanuellaborer Location: Reykjavik, Iceland --- If you are someone who would prefer to transfer directly to a bank account, then here are the details: IBAN number: IS69 0515 14 407614 200154 2829 SWIFT: GLITISRE (This should be all you need, but let me know if not!) (***This is a separate “savings” account set up with my bank only for any money I receive towards this project, and I will let everyone know when/if the target has been reached. I am not asking for any more than I need in other words!***)
--- If you would like to share anything with me by any other means, then please just get in touch and let me know, okay? Thanks. (I have a PayPal account, but I don't know how that works for receiving money) If you are able to help, then please drop me a line at: dave.shea@internet.is and let me know “who”, “where”, “when”, “how”, “how much”, etc. --- Any help I receive from anyone in any way will be acknowledged by me personally. I will also have a separate page here on my site (“The Master Builder”) where you can monitor progress made in this project, as well as a page on facebook (David-LíkamsListamadur). Both of these are “under construction” right now. (Please just make sure I have your valid, working e-mail address, if I don't have it already, okay? Thanks.) “The Goal” or “target” I have to reach for this course, what is actually needed as is stated on the web-site = IS kr 499,000 or £ 2,455 or US$ 3,894 or € 3.064 or Swiss fr 3,690 or ¥ 316,201 or ...etc, etc,... (This is as of the 16th November exchange rates on-line) It might “sound expensive”, I know, but this is Iceland, and the cost of living here is high, and always has been - “a half a million” to the average Icelander “doesn't sound like much” actually, especially for something like this. I tend to agree with the outlook of a dear friend of mine long-passed - “I would rather receive US$ 10 each from a hundred people, than US$ 1,000 from one person!” The thinking behind this is that US$ 10 might mean an aweful lot to each of those hundred folks, especially if it was difficult for them to give it! Therefore each would receive “the bigger blessing”! However, even if it was easier to receive the whole amount from one person, “all in one go”, perhaps that US$ 1,000 wouldn't mean that much to the “richer” person, and they “would hardly miss it”, but then they would certainly be missing out on “the greater blessing” wouldn't they? I will take, and gratefully receive, whatever anyone is willing and able to give, whoever they are, “from each according to his/her ability, to each according to his/her need” (mine in this case)! I will leave the “blessings department” up to the Lord! I understand that being the time of year that it is, approaching Christmas, this will probably come as an “added expense” request, but perhaps it could be considered “a special Christmas Present”!? Thanks for listening anyway, dear one and all! With love always, David