To do

Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you.

Mother Teresa

 

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Autumn reminders

I've been “away” for awhile – I have been doing many housekeeping things and painting like a mad man. And while on my journey, autumn has peeked in. It was my mother’s favorite season and is now, Elizabeth’s favorite. I , on the other hand, have never been able to decide favorite anythings – especially favorite colors and seasons – I love them all equally - they are kinda like people, all unique and making their own  contribution.

 I do think a lot about my mom during this season, however. My thoughts are about food and her kitchen and my boys when they were little and in the woods behind her house. Those first cool snaps caused me to dig for funny little hats to cover tender little ears and warm socks and shoes to spend the day outside in - I can still so easily imagine all of that. I know I must have had some “troubles” during those years but it’s funny how time has taken them away and has left behind only the warmth. Time is indeed a healer of all things. I do miss those days, days when you knew that there was someone  there to watch over you and to guide you – it’s a difficult task losing that, at least in the physical sense.These first days of fall are reminders of those  days of long ago – pleasant reminders. It’s important to me to make these days warm places to visit for someone else later, just as my mother did for me.

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9/11

It's 10 years since the World Trade Center attack – 9/11 – as it has become known. There are children amongst us who never knew the world without that “catch phrase”. I suppose it can be compared to my parents’ generation when, then President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “ Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

 Sad how each generation has some date such as that to always remember and associate their youth with. I am happy that so much memorial coverage is being given to the families of 9/11 victims – I can only imagine how huge it is to hear your loved ones name being spoken again, to be remembered is so important. Anyway, just wanted to say what I said and make note that it is indeed a solemn memory for our country, but our free country is still here…

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.

Jimi Hendrix

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energy

When I was growing up, there was a little saying about it taking more muscles to frown than to smile - I think that may have been  some sort of precursor to the idea of positive energy and affirmations that we speak of now - just a bit more rudimentary. It does take alot of effort to be negative - to think negative thoughts and to feel negatively about yourself and others , to frown. I wonder if I can go through the day, this day, without allowing any negative thoughts in my head and only speaking when I have something good to say, I wonder how fulfilled I would feel by the end of the day. And I wonder if that energy would be tranferable?

Cease all criticism of yourself and others. Accept yourself as you are. Praise yourself as much as you can. Criticism breaks down the inner spirit, praise builds it up.

Louise Hay

elizabeth - 2009

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short trips to Walden

 It’s Not Your Work to Make Anything Happen. It’s Your Work to Dream it and Let it Happen. Law of Attraction Will Make it Happen 

 Abraham Hicks

I’m going with this. I have been painting voraciously lately, It’s like I am possessed and now I have this somewhat large collection of work that needs to “go” somewhere. It’s funky art = fun and colorful, something positive to live with. I have no business sense at all but I do have faith that if I continue to create, someone bigger than me will point me to the right direction. As I posted earlier, it is so freeing to let all of that kind of worldly worry go – afterall, I have the best agent in the world.

I have also pulled out old manuscripts, incomplete ramblings really, and as I read them , I enjoyed my brief departure into the past. These stormy days are so good for that sort of thing – reconnecting with yourself, not allowing the outside world to influence you – sort of like little Walden excursions – a reveal of who you are not who society portrays you. I certainly do miss my physical aptitudes of youth but I do prefer this vantage point of middle age – so many concerns and influences are gone – so much freedom here, so much purity.

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gifts

The rain is making me stay inside and I’m happy about that. I am forced to read and piddle and be quiet. I probably have 4 books started, all non-fiction, never fiction. One of them contains a quote by William Blake that I just read and felt I had to post:

"I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me."

This, as they say, "speaks volumes to me". I wish people that were arrogant and conceited and smug would read this. I suppose it is a pet peeve of mine the way some people feel they are so credible – like they are responsible for things that they have had absolutely no control over. I suppose all of this rancor I speak with comes from my knowing children that are somewhat “disadvantaged”. I put that in quotes because I personally don’t believe they are “disadvantaged”, the people who think so are the ones that are truly disadvantaged because they are ignorant, prejudice, and certainly closed minded. 
 For the most part, we have certain attributes because we are “born that way”. I was born with blue eyes, a very desirable eye color, but can I take credit for that? No – I didn’t lift one feeble finger to get these blue eyes. I know the eye color analogy is a physical trait but I sincerely believe it applies to emotional, artistic, and mental traits also. It’s all about what you do with the blessings you have been given, "given" being the key word. I struggle with this while looking  to find places to give.

you can do it

I’m on a rant I suppose, but I can say what I feel here on the pages of “sketches” because it is my space. Anyway, I love this quote by Blake. I feel so fortunate, so blessed, if you will, that I am a painter. Art has been a part of my life for all of my memory and I cannot imagine life without it. It has gotten deeper and deeper for me – I have traveled beyond what I could have imagined as a young art student. I am not necessarily referring to the “skill” of it but to the metaphysical part of it – to the dimension it takes you. It is what I am supposed to do – I wish that each of us could discover our gifts - they are there, but sometimes the close mindedness of society tries to disallow you to celebrate them.

If you live the life you love, you will receive shelter and blessings. Sometimes the great famine of blessings in and around us derives from the fact that we are not living the life we love; rather, we are living the life that is expected of us. We have fallen out of rhythm with the secret signature and light of our own nature.

John O’Donohue

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