The Two Lightning Bolt Moments That Changed the Direction of My Life

One made me an artist and the other made me a full-time traveler

We have all heard this term before, “lightning bolt moments.” But what do they actually mean?

Does a lightning bolt actually hit you?

Well no, but let me tell you, it sure feels like it!

It’s like the heavens open up and they are smacking you as hard as they can, to shake you loose so that they can show you a new direction.

It’s like the Universe is telling you that you have been going the wrong way, and you need to change course, and NOW!

They are so profound that they are impossible to ignore, and you simply know that you have to listen……..or else!?

For me, I have had 2 VERY distinct lightning bolt moments, and they have literally shaped who I am today in very profound ways. Ways that I am just putting together now.

The Artist Lightning Bolt Moment

My first lightning bolt moment was when I was 30 years old, back in 2006. At that moment I was taking a pottery class for the first time. In fact, it was the first art class that I had taken since I mostly abandoned my creativity at the age of 12 years old.

While I sat in that class and held the clay for the first time, it felt like all of the creative inspiration that I had been holding back and suppressing for all those years, came through me in an instant. I literally felt like a lightning bolt was striking me right in the back of my neck. Of course, there was no pain, but it felt as though a channel of inspiration was racing down from the heavens, and was being directed right into my very being.

As the clay sat in my hands, I realized for the first time ever, that I could make ANYTHING out of that clay. Then, I realized that I could make anything out of ANYTHING!

The whole right side of my brain felt like it was exploding out the side of my head, and creativity came pouring out of me fast and furiously. My future life flashed before my eyes, and I knew in that instant that my life was never going to be the same again.

Of course, it never was the same again, and every waking moment, from that day on, has been dedicated to my creativity in one way or the other.

My Travel Lightning Bolt Moment

My second lightning bolt moment came to me on January 11, 2017. I was watching the documentary Minimalism on Netflix, and I suddenly realized that the reason that I wasn’t able to travel as much as I wanted to was that I had surrounded myself with too much stuff.

As I looked around the room, my jaw agape, I realized in that instant that none of the stuff on the shelves was important to me anymore, and I had to get rid of it. All of it.

In those moments I went from somebody who had tried as hard as they could to fit into society's mold, to somebody who couldn’t wait to get out of it.

In that instant, I somehow found my way back to my true self again. It was a profound moment, and I knew then that it was the only way to move forward.

Thankfully it was very easy to convince my partner that traveling full-time was a good idea, and we set about getting rid of all of our possessions straight away. Nine months later we whisked our way south on a one-way journey to Costa Rica. We didn’t know what we were going to do with ourselves, and we had barely a plan, but we knew that we wanted to see the world.

The first commitment of our new life was a 2-month housesit job, right on the pacific coast of the country. It was only after we had relaxed on the beach for a couple of weeks that we both realized that we now had all the time in the world to work on our artwork and create a life for ourselves that we had only dreamt of.

Chris has been an artist his whole life and mostly was a tattoo artist in his adult years. We had brought a carry-on suitcase full of art supplies, and we had no excuse but to get creative. We spent many days just working on art projects, and after a while, I realized that I also had the proper amount of time available to dedicate to working on my Etsy shop.

I had flailed around with Etsy for many years and had I had the time to work on it properly back in the early days, I might have really made a name for myself. But as things go, my real jobs got in the way of me doing that, so it was usually a very sporadic effort.

But now, here I was, with all the time in the world to truly dedicate to it and to make it work. I got busy and started creating print-on-demand dropshipping shops, and found a fair amount of success straight away.

Our First Mural Painting Job

It was on our second visit to Samara, Costa Rica, in June 2018 that we offered our artistic services to our host in exchange for our accommodation.

The first time we had been there, shortly after arriving in Costa Rica in 2017, he had found out that we were artists and had wanted us to paint him a large mural of 2 Scarlett Macaws in the jungle. He was willing to provide us with free accommodation in return for our services.

At that time, we were heading to a housesitting job, so we didn’t have the time to dedicate to a project like that.

But this time, we had all the time in the world.

The catch was, though, that neither of us had ever painted anything before. Well, of course, we had both been house painters, but we were certainly not artistic painters. However, I knew that if we never tried, then we would never know if we could do it. I also knew that doing work like this was a great way to get our accommodation covered while we traveled, so I figured that we should at least give it a try.

I mean, how hard could it be?

We told the owner that it would take us 10 days to complete, and we got busy. However, things were not so straight forward and we fought and argued many times trying to figure out how to get the right effects. But, perseverance paid off and after 20 days of focused effort, we finally finished. Of course, the owner had only agreed on exchanging 10 days, as that was originally how long we said that it would take (we obviously had no idea), so that is all we got for free accommodation.

However, the morale and confidence boost that we got in completing the project, paid off in spades.

With that project under our belt, we felt confident to start offering our services to other places, and we have now painted murals in many places around the world!

In January 2020, after traveling full time for 2 whole years, we finally figured out a brand for ourselves — Artistic Voyages. It is the complete package that marries our love for travel, with our love for art.

And I can now so clearly see just how those lightning bolt moments came to shape me into the person that I was always meant to be.

Now, after 4 years of our nomadic life, we travel from place to place, volunteering to beautify spaces, and bringing countless amounts of joy to hotel/hostel/restaurant owners, plus the patrons that come to the establishments.

We have just completed our largest project to date at the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Centre, also known as the Entebbe Zoo. We painted their information center at the entrance to the zoo, to educate their patrons about the different wildlife and ecosystems in Uganda. We couldn’t be more proud of our efforts, and we know that they will be seen by thousands of people in the years to come.

Life has an interesting way of telling us things, but it is also up to each of us to listen and act on that guidance.

Having the courage to step into the ‘lightning bolt moments’ will ALWAYS pay off!

What lightning bolt moments have you had in your life? Let me know in the comments, I am very interested to know!

xo Jill

Hi there, we are 2 Canadians, Jill and Chris from Artistic Voyages. We have been nomadic since 2017 living in numerous different countries, and experiencing the life and diversity of our planet on the ground and firsthand. We have now been on the African continent for over 2 years! Join our adventure by hitting the links below! Subscribe to Medium to get full access to my writing plus thousands of others!

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