a midsummer dream

Elizabeth and I saw ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream “last night – yum – it was so well done and enchanting. It will be a special summer memory that she and I have shared, there amongst the political anguish/darkness that is occurring in Washington and presiding over summer, the ego driven politicians making decisions about our future – yuk. "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" - Puck from William Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream.
 Anyway, it was refreshing to be with our “theater friends” – so real, so lovely, so good.

 Today the sun has reappeared and I am flooded with optimism and happiness – I am back on track with my positive immersion. My family has been blessed with yet another day - what more is there? I hope to spend much of my day between the kitchen and the studio and the big news is my young chicks are laying!!! They are only 5 months old! Precocious little girls. I found a cluster of little brown eggs under the tractor yesterday – what a gift.

my new "mothers"

Just rambling, I need to go into my day, my present, and make good use of it. I am posting a few snapshots of midsummer – images that make it all work for me. 

ginger and rose of sharon

coops and crepes



empty til spring





My dad's birdhouses and next season's garden

me

my family

 b u
p s





Norman Vincent Peale

 "Change your thoughts and you change your world."

Norman Vincent Peale

That’s it, this is all I need to post. Have a good day.

b u

p s

peaceful

July 26, hmmm a day without much hoopla attached to it – the best kind of day – I believe. The dog days continue through the 3^rd of August and 57 days til autumn. Meanwhile the tropical climate travels northward and the Gulf of México, once again, becomes very critical in our coastal lives. But, today, all is calm and the box on the calendar is empty – the precursor to a great summer day. I chose to begin this potentially wonderful day with a blog entry and coffee. I don’t have anything special to write about this morning but I do have one quirky, poorly constructed but meaningful thought I’d like to share – some things in life are important, but there are A LOT of THINGS that are not. I think I will, in my continued effort to improve, spend the day on the important things.

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.
 Henry David Thoreau

some pieces of my life that make it full

b u

p s

The Power of Positive Thinking

Something I wrote yesterday and neglected to post:

Saturday morning - I am here writing to cause myself to be aware of the moment, of the day ahead. I woke up really early 4:45 – too early – that hour would cause me to nap later in the day and the day might not lend itself that way – so I listened to the rain and the early morning until I dosed again – til 6. I tried to paint , after coffee, but it wasn’t working for me – I am housing some sort of negative energy and it’s having its’ way with my day – so I’ll write. I understand that sometimes we are “unbalanced” out of sync and it seems I am. I read this from somewhere in cyberspace (wish I could give credit but it was all so “accidental”) “Circumstances are neutral. You will generate positive vibes when your inner state is one of alignment and congruence, instead of being resistive.”

Okay, this really helps – circumstances are neutral – so I need to adjust my vision. Here’s how I respond to that: “We are Shaped by Our Thoughts; We Become What We Think. When the Mind is Pure, Joy Follows Like a Shadow that Never Leaves” – Gautama Buddha

It’s all the Power of Positive Thinking – something I read long ago by Norman Vincent Peale - "Your unconscious mind ... [has a] power that turns wishes into realities when the wishes are strong enough." This is where I choose to begin my day.

 b u

p s

magic

Getting more content each day – it’s working. I have turned over lots of happy moments hidden underneath unsuspecting circumstances and around dubious corners. The heat is stifling; I suppose  I could complain but I refused to say, “it’s so damned hot out there” nope, not me, I came into the house and told everyone about the symphonic crooning of frogs out there in the rain filled ditches – sounds of summer that go magically with the loud locust mating calls later in the day – Nature’s small creatures doing their very big part to make it all jive, I need to do my part to make my environment positive and therefore, productive. Going to the gallery today – went through the woods yesterday…picked pears and remembered my mom when I walked by her 4 o'clocks that have bloomed here for 25 years and always remind me of being 7, a new house, a new baby brother, and a little scattering of seeds someone had given her...the simplest of jestures, a small act of kindness still being enjoyed today, 50 years later - how's that for positive energy!!



into the woods



overbearing



almost ready



my mom's 4 o'clocks

  b u

 p s



another opportunity

Here we go again – another day…yesterday was good – because I said so. It was a conscious effort to stray away from negative thoughts – dodge bullets – but I am thinking that if I continue to do this, it will become a habit, a reflex of sorts and I will end up on the other side and much better for it. My biggest obstacle is staying in the moment, I’ve found. I tend to imagine everyone’s future – I don’t know who gave me these credentials but I find myself managing the future – how silly is that! Anyway, that was the hard part for me – I have to keep to the path, stay in the here and now. I do well when I’m present – I feel that contentedness I spoke of yesterday. I find, also, that spirituality must run parallel to this navigation center – as I said, I am not capable of managing someone’s future – LOL – I need guidance. I find myself becoming more and more spiritual as I get older – not to be confused with religious – and therefore, feel more security that my life is directed; my job is to never lose sight of the beacon. Two of my biggest moments yesterday were – the twins coming home from a trip safe and happy with another layer of growth and experience and a possible opportunity for me to hang some of my art in a gallery!  

Another summer day stretched out ahead of me – I still have all of my facilities and possibilities alongside of my spirituality and belief that life is not random.

p s



today

 I have yet another summer day. How will I conduct it? I think I will choose to be content today – content that, while not perfect, never can be that, my life is good. First of all, I have my life and all of my facilities and even beyond that – so does my family. Okay that’s it – I’m not going to be greedy with the universe – I’m good to go – the day ahead looks awesome and all things are possible. Wow!

b happy
p s

sitting at the top

Do you see that little guy in the corner? He’s the one with curious eyes and cinnamon smudges on his face. He has been there since 1985! I cleaned out my little spice cabinet yesterday and, once again, I dusted him off and put him back in his corner. I’ll take him out again around Christmas – one morning when it’s cold and it's Saturday and time for hot chocolate and cinnamon toast. I don’t really know why I hang on to such a peculiar inanimate object – something from Winn Dixie that I bought when my oldest boys were about 3 or 4. Anyway, there he was again, sitting there, waiting and causing me to reel backwards into what I remember to be such a wonderful time – a time of youth, both mine and my children’s, a time when I had my parents there to cushion the blows and filter the toxins of my life, a time when tomorrow was stretched out into infinity, it seemed. Hmmmm, now, I find myself at the helm, so to speak. Now, I am the softener of some of the blows and the filter that tries to keep my children safe – it can be a difficult transition, and it’s true, it can be lonely at the top, sitting there trying to look ahead, trying to figure out what’s best when there is nothing tangible to draw from or notion to lead – just you … Now you know why “he” sits there in my spice cabinet with his quirky smile and his twist top head.

b u

p s

Work

my daughter is learning a monologue for an acting workshop - Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov - and I really liked this particular part of it.

IRINA. Tell me, why is it I am so happy today? As though I were sailing with the great blue sky above me and big white birds flying over it. Why is it? Why?

IRINA. When I woke up this morning, got up and washed, it suddenly seemed to me as though everything in the world was clear to me and that I knew how one ought to live. Dear Ivan Romanitch, I know all about it. A man ought to work, to toil in the sweat of his brow, whoever he may be, and all the purpose and meaning of his life, his happiness, his ecstasies lie in that alone. How delightful to be a workman who gets up before dawn and breaks stones on the road, or a shepherd, or a schoolmaster teaching children, or an engine-driver. . . . Oh, dear! to say nothing of human beings, it would be better to be an ox, better to be a humble horse as long as you can work, than a young woman who wakes at twelve o'clock, then has coffee in bed, then spends two hours dressing. . . . Oh, how awful that is! Just as one has a craving for water in hot weather I have a craving for work. And if I don't get up early and work, give me up as a friend, Ivan Romanitch

 b u

p s

wabi - sabi

This is something i posted long ago and I stumbled across it this afternoon and thought i'd repost.

I found an article by Japanese architect Tadao Ando on wabi – sabi and I wanted to share it.

“Pared down to its barest essence, wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death. It's simple, slow, and uncluttered-and it reveres authenticity above all. Wabi-sabi is flea markets, not warehouse stores; aged wood, not Pergo; rice paper, not glass. It celebrates cracks and crevices and all the other marks that time, weather, and loving use leave behind. It reminds us that we are all but transient beings on this planet-that our bodies as well as the material world around us are in the process of returning to the dust from which we came. Through wabi-sabi, we learn to embrace liver spots, rust, and frayed edges, and the march of time they represent.”
I think it is impossible to be happy if you think in terms of perfection since perfection does not exist in this life – let it go, celebrate the quirks and blemishes – release and breathe…wabi – sabi.

b u

p s

summer rain

These summer days are rolling on and I am loving nearly every moment. It rained, hard, the other day and I had to stay inside, so I painted the entire day – taking breaks only to mess around on the computer and gaze out of the window. For me, this was a proverbial “heaven on earth” situation. I’ve said this before, it’s not the “big” things in life that bring happiness – those things can sometimes be spawned by ego and laced with vanity – it’s the little things – the things that all of us have. It’s you appreciating the rainy summer day and the sunshine that illuminated the earth when the rain stops, it’s seeing the good in people and doing good, it’s the self-satisfaction you feel when you have completed a difficult task or created a piece of art or it’s the cup of coffee and an early June morning when the house is still and it’s just you and the universe – anyway, I had that kind of day. Awesome stuff.

b u

p s

Dog Days

 The "dog days" of summer are here – they began this past Sunday, July 3. They will continue through August 11. It’s something we’ve all heard – those dog days of summer – and certainly have all felt, but do you know why it’s called “dog days”? It’s all about Sirius, the dog star (it’s the largest star in the Canis Major constellation).During these sultry days of summer, Sirius rises and sets with the sun – a belief from antiquity that "explains" why it is so hot. Okay, that’s an oversimplification but it’s the general idea. Now you know why it’s so hot – because of Sirius.

b cool

p s

adjustments

The day seems sunnier today. I had a good cry over the phone with a special friend and just her listening was magic for me. What would we do without our friends?

 Each day is defined by how you “look at it” and yesterday was like a picture hanging slightly slanted on the wall – I was bothered by it and probably overthinking it – just a simple exercise in self-inflicted torture. I’m a mom, so there is always something quirky occurring in my life and I cannot control hardly any of it. I know this, so on most days, I just control my attitude, but on some days, it controls me; that would be yesterday.

 I still haven’t written my column, so I will now – going forward with an attitude adjustment. I have to remember to not take life so seriously and remind myself that it’s all going to be okay. I struggle to even know what I stressed over last July – it’s all in my foggy past and everything in my present moment is fine. What a waste of valuable time all that worrying was.

Take good care of your friends – they are your lifelines, they remind us of what we are really about when we lose our way.

"It is not so much our friends' help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us."

Epicurus

Lucy Hunnicutt

b positive

p s

crows over the wheat field

Not very productive today on the keyboard. I have a column due tomorrow at 4 and it is taking all I have just to piece that together. I am in some sort of creative void presently and my raw thoughts are not so positive so I choose not to post anything. I will spend some time doing something physical – like cleaning out something, there’s plenty of that to do here – and maybe I can shake this temper that I find myself in. Art is about being ultrasensitive, you have to be, but when it turns on you, it is paralyzing. I will find my way back; nothing is really “wrong”, it’s just that I need to adjust my attitude.

b u

p s

positive energy

I ran across this proverb in an email this morning and it impacted me so I wanted to pass it on to you.

“Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up”
(Proverbs 12:25, NLT)

b u

p s