Holiday from the heart

Heartfelt giving -

I find it heartbreaking that so many people feel such a need to marginalize and demonize others in an effort to establish themselves as compassionate, caring, righteous, moral and above all, superior.

I was verbally affronted the other day when dropping some clothes off at the Goodwill. As I placed my bags into the bin, a lady pulled up and hopped out of her car and began placing paper bags of items by the side of the container on the ground. “I can’t reach all the way up there to throw these in, they wash all these things before selling them anyway” she stated matter-of-factly.

“I can put them in for you” I said.  “You can if you want to but it doesn’t really matter, they have to sort through all this junk we leave and clean whatever they want to keep of it anyway. Besides those kind of people who buy it don’t expect this stuff to be perfect, just cheap!” she replied. “The Goodwill expects people to donate items that are in good shape and clean, not junk” I said with a bit of a glare at her. “Whatever, you are crazy if you spend your time washing stuff before you bring it here. I do my part for charity; I even gave some to their Bell Ringers ”.  “The Bell Ringers are the Salvation Army” came my response and then her immediate “Whatever!”Those were her parting words as she climbed into her car and sped off. 

Now I’m not so perfect and I can be as judgmental as anyone, in fact my first “judgment” was that she probably never actually even entered a Goodwill or Salvation Army, let alone considered ever buying and using something from them. Then I judged her as a prissy well to do Bitch. But I didn’t judge her that way to make myself feel better about “me”, or to belittle or demean “her kind”. My judgment was of her at that moment, of her action and of her words with me, so it was really my conclusion of her character in that brief exchange.

Regardless of whether it was my conclusion, or a judgment, or a label, or a group that I had just associated her to, I was later just as troubled with my own anger at her and that compulsion to connect her personal action and words to anything greater, to some group or class.

Finally it came to me. And it’s important this time of year as Holidays approach and with the recent weather  disaster – Charity, Benevolence, Donations, Giving , if not truly done from the heart in an action to share and care for others in good will in order to help them as equals, actually subjugates them or elevates you.

We are for the most part a compassionate and caring society, for the most part we embrace justice and equity, fairness and equal opportunity, the freedom to become better off and prosper. We want to help people with a “hand up”. But that has to be heart-felt. It has to start truly from there, from your heart, you have to feel it and believe in that. Otherwise it’s more an action of duty or a kind gesture but without real compassion. In those cases your spirit of “giving” is not present, there is no empathy. It is just another action or task or “to do” on your list; went to the bank-check, washed the car-check, dropped stuff at the Goodwill-check, eat lunch-check.

We all have our causes and favorite charities, we donate a great deal of time, money and effort into these and sometimes we really do feel a sense of caring and sharing. I have to remind myself of this often, I’m human in a very fast paced “me” world, and holidays bring out the best and worst in all of us.

Care, share and give from your heart and I believe you will “feel” a special gift within yours.

May the Spirit of giving be with you now and through-out the year, Good Will to you and yours this holiday season. Enjoy your Holiday celebration and respect others in theirs.

Peace and cheers to everyone!

A boy, my boy

Joshua –

Our little boy would be in sixth grade, a twelve year old today, the day he came into this world, born but not living. His arrival was anticipated and agonized as we became aware of his death several days before the final delivery of his birth in the very early hours of a November morning. He came quietly into the world, we cried and held each other and we held him. We smiled some too, but mostly we wept. There was beauty and distinction in his tiny face, hands, fingers, toes, ears, nose, eyelids. He was beautiful but still.

There is grief I feel quite often and will be forever, and there is remorse from me as well. I wish I had requested a picture of him as with any other child’s birth, as with other “live” births. I could have asked for that, but didn’t at the time as we were really unable to think or make choices with any clarity. I wish I would have had his young sisters there to see and hold him briefly. I regret that and I am sorry for that decision, that still hurts me even now and it always will, so I hope they can forgive me in that choice of the moment.

I wish he was here today, learning and playing in a sixth grade classroom. Acting silly, teasing and loving his sisters, loving pets, hugging mommy and daddy.

My faith was rocked by that event.  My following of a particular Religion and church teaching has never been the same. To me his conception seemed a miracle. There had been miscarriages before, fertility concerns, but two sisters were born and healthy, though with challenging pregnancies and deliveries, one c-section and the other natural but with complications for mother and baby after. It had been four years since the last birth of our baby girl, and no form of birth control all those years. We wanted another child and looked into fertility and other options and then,  he was there.

A tiny heartbeat, and he grew, past the scary first weeks, 8^th, 9^th, 10^ththrough 12^th weeks, 13 weeks and counting so I felt more at ease. We were going to have another baby, we had another baby, we heard his heartbeat, we saw his image. 15 weeks, 20 weeks, 24 weeks, and then silence. No prayers would change it. No science or religion strong enough to change it. There was no longer a heartbeat, only a tiny body that now had to be delivered premature and stillborn. It was agonizing, torturous, unbelievable. For me it was an emotional nightmare, for my stoic, loving wife and the mother of our child, of our children, it was both an emotional and physical contradiction. Pain physical and emotional, labor and delivery heartbreaking and still in a moment wonderful, yet real in its drama, sorrow and devastation.

We were comforted by family, friends, doctors and nurses, pastors, clergy and Priests. We were comforted in prayer that God would help us through. But there were no answers to why. No spiritual answers, no Religious answers, no scientific answers, no comprehension or understanding then, or now for that matter.

There are many phases of grief the experts will tell you, and there are, and they come and go depending. My faith allowed me to believe that my sons soul had past and was at peace in a better place, in Heaven with others and family that too had died. There was, is, comfort he is there, my belief and faith helps me with that. MY faith, MY beliefs, not those of the Catholic Church which I had chosen to be confirmed into prior to marriage.

Grief played a part in my mounting anger, but the anger was more pointed at Institutions, State Laws and Church rules. The contradictions.

See Insurance for medical covers the pregnant mother, not the living child yet to be born. There are laws to protect the life of the living unborn baby, but not that allows for a life insurance policy of that unborn child as example. You can get life insurance for the mother, but not for the living unborn “life”. Insurance death and burial benefits of a family member don’t count if the person wasn’t born “live”. In fact since it isn’t a “live” birth there is no Birth Certificate, and therefore no Death Certificate. The hospital records show a female patient delivering a stillborn male child, but no birth or death, no name of the child recorded or tally on a census record. Just a hospital statistic. The Insurance benefits I paid for over the years for family death and funeral costs would not be supported by my insurance company because my son was not born alive.

The Catholic Church has Sacraments and rites. The Sacrament of baptism is only performed for a living person.  The sick cannot be anointed if they are dead. Last Rites cannot be given if the person has not been baptized. The stillborn child is not recognized into the body of the Church, but “is in Gods hands”. There couldn’t be a Catholic funeral and Mass for my son because he wasn’t born alive, he was born still, his life stopped at 24 weeks, protected by laws to protect anyone from taking his life within a pregnant mother, but a natural unexplainable death before birth and he’s nobody in eyes of State Laws, Insurance Companies and Church Rules. So we decided to have his body cremated (against Catholic teaching, but they didn’t officially recognize him anyway), and we hold his cremated ashes dear and cherished in our own safe vessel and await the passing of mother or father to be buried along-side one of us, to be present at a funeral recognizing both parent and child.

I love my son and cherish his short life and time with us, unborn, and I am happy I saw him and held him. I have faith and believe in one God, a universal spirit. I believe in Jesus, and some teachings of Christianity, I also believe an omnipresent God shares a Spirit in many, many ways and through many means of teaching, different stories, different peoples and different events. I believe in Angels and Spirits, I believe the Souls and Energy of all life is part of the omnipresent. I find comfort in various Religious images, icons, monuments, statues, writings, and practices, not just Christian, but from all of them. I believe in connecting with God though intentions, meditation, prayer, and just being open to enlightenment. I believe in the universal spirit and good will of all people. I believe it is all in Gods hands, within Gods universal structure, but I think that we make choices and do things as humans, that are not “Gods will”. I believe my relationship to my God in my way manifests the love and good in me to empathize and care for humanity and all things in this world. I believe that firm Religious dogmas, Politics and power of separate Religious Institutions and those Leaders of Church and State are often ironically at odds with their Gods intentions and the natural balance of Gods spirit. I still go into a church and attend Mass, as I feel Gods presence there, me and My God, but I don’t really listen to the Priest, I don’t hear the Catholic Church, I go to feel the presence of God and to have my own connection to him, and to share a greeting of peace to others. I’ll light a candle, I’ll kneel and pray and share an intention, I’ll give thanks to my God, to him, not to the Church or it’s politics.

I believe my sons Soul and Spirit contributes to help balance and provide positive, loving, peaceful energy in his very, very small way. I believe I must live up to his contribution, live up to his potential, live up to his expectation of me, small as he was in that still body, he is now a part of Life as large as the universe, and that is immensely more enormous in Spirit and will take my lifetime to strive to achieve daily.

I hope in some small way this heartfelt and personal sharing benefits you, that it has even a small impact in your life, that it may stir an emotion and an honest moment of your own, with your own beliefs. We all need to check into our own Spirit and deep into our Souls, time and again.

Love and peace be with you, blessing of the Spirit be upon you, go in peace and serve the world every small step of your way as best you can, always first for the good of others, and you too will find peace along that path.

O X O

New States of America - a science fiction story

The Oracle & The Bain States of America –

Science Fiction has roots in possibilities, history, probabilities, statistics, power, money, apathy, greed, rises and falls of empires, kingdoms and dominions. This is a short story, as with the course of human creation, evolution, and possible extinction, so goes history as it’s told of a higher thinking civilized society. The United States of America is but a blip on the historic timeline, a quick blooming then self absorbing flower with too many thorns and shoots to sustain. It cannibalizes itself for sustenance until death.

Before a nation reaches its 300^th birthday it will further split and divide and topple and be no more. The inhabitants, some, will remain. Not in an apocalyptic “tumult” of utter destruction left from self inflicted ignorance and warfare, though surely in isolated and divided camps with authoritarian plutocratic superficial democracies. As nations topple wealth adn power prevail and retain thier dominion in the new higherarchy. Russia, East Germany, the middle east, our domestic chieftans know the game, they have been creating it and establishing rules for decades. Little experiments played out across history, lessons learned, strategies adjusted, orders executed, casulites a part of the war.

Alaska is first to go as exchange of resource asset in property for debt payment and forgiveness to China. The exchange will have a contract entitled Treaty, but will be in the manner of a business deal private equity exchange offering. It will be then known as the Alaskan Republic of China.

Northern California, Oregon and Washington will be granted the title of the Western Democratic State of America.

Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin will be entitled with Northern Republic State of America. Note, North Dakota will be the sole grant of new Country status sold back to the Native American Nations, with a provision that they all relocate to the newly established Country and all existing Reservations be abandoned, and are required to tithe 30% of all future gaming revenues to the Dominion Capital Bain State of America.

Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Delaware, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont become the Eastern Democratic State of America. Maine is exchanged with Canada for western pipeline and commerce free routing between the Alaskan Republic of China and the New States of America.

Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina all become the Rebel-publican State of America.

Southern California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado become the Hispanic State of America and all “illegal immigrants” at the time will be granted asylum and immunity and allowed to relocate as an American citizen to this enclave.

Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas be granted OPEC status as the NewAmerican Oil Empire State with exclusive Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas drilling rights. 50% of all revenue goes directly to the Dominion Capital Bain State of America to further support governance.

Florida is established as a Universal medical and retirement colony primarily funded from oil and gas surcharges. All Americans who so choose at the age of 79 must relocate there to live out their lives in carefree luxery, having relinquished all other froms of Entitlement, or they may depart the New United States immediately revoking citizenship with a one-time projected 5 year Cost of Living stipend. All funded from the Native American Nations gaming revenue endowment trust equal to 25% of all their revenue, but administered via an Offshore Dominion Capital Bain State trust fund protected and free of any taxation.

Hawaii becomes the new “Las Vegas” and vacation island playground establishing the “American Pacific Riviera”, owned by the Dominion Capital Bain State of America. Where odes the Dominion Capital Bain State reside, clearly it must be established in the only remaining location: Utah.

Footnote - the District of Columbia; Washington DC is dismantled and absorbed into Maryland. The White House, Capital, monuments, excetera, all become part of a masive Public Zoo and parkland.

Choose your state carefully and live happily ever after.

The END.

Trickle-down my ass!

Editorial comment below: this opinion is that of the author; no association or agreement, no fees, no subsidies, no wages real or implied, have been given or paid by any Fortune 1000 Company, CEO, CFO, Senator or Congress memeber current or former, or any other PAC or Media entity - they keep that among their own 1%. 

Ø  How’s that “trickle-down theory” working for ya –

The language is simply offensive, as it relates to finance and economics, nothing in the word “trickle” instills any confidence, success or acceptable outcome for more than a select few.  A planted field of crops does not grow with a trickle of irrigation, but a trickle of oil seeping from a tanker can pollute and kill an entire eco-system.

Heaping scoops of ice cream melt and trickle down the cone.  Water trickles from a leaking faucet. Piss trickles down your leg.  A shattered domestic economy doesn’t need “trickle-down economics”, hell we’ve been trickled on for too damn long. 

Likewise any economic policy that anticipates those demigod gatekeepers of big business, financing, banking and commerce to actually care about what value and domestic economic improvement in poor, low-income and middle-class real wage could be, are so full of shit I imagine that is trickling down upon us too!

A few lines from Monty Python’s Holy Grail where the lowly commoners, servants and serfs are muddy in the fields goes something like – “How do you know he’s a King?”, “He hasn’t got shit all over him!” as King Arthur heads on his quest for the Holy Grail and riches. Our Corporate, Banking and Political “elite” preside over their power, wealth and quest for more, in open mockery of any premise to see domestic median income and wealth improve. Quite the opposite, as their control and use of monies to influence policy and lawmakers has become legal (or illegal and not prosecuted) in campaign financing, lobbying, monopolization actually broadens the wage gap and increase poverty levels domestically.  Those dollars flow in the hundreds of MILLIONS, BILLIONS, to TRILLIONS while their “trickle-down” of wages continue to go to developing third-world labor and emerging markets, and are whittled away by their policies to help ensure shareholder and corporate revenue. Wages and benefits are always the first on the chopping block, “low hanging fruit” in the business lingo for easy things to manage.

Now as far as Capitalism goes, and a sound business practice of securing the lowest wages and material costs, they are indeed doing the right and profitable business. They should go to those places for low cost labor and materials. There is no reason, incentive, regulation that would compel them to keep jobs, wage, and production domestic, or in the very least give consideration to wage stability in line with expanding production of these labor resources. They can trickle-down much less outside the US and therefore make more profit. That’s just good business. More profit means more money to spend on things that benefit their futures individually and as Corporations; business incentives, tax breaks, government contracts, R&D grants, and reduced regulation so they are free to help the economy grow through trickle-down economics.

A recent Wall Street Journal review of 35 multi-national US companies discovered that they collectively added 446,000 jobs between 2009 and 2011, 3/4s of them overseas and 60% of their revenue growth came from overseas where they contributed to those locations economic growth. At the same time domestic production per capita continued to increase  at a greater percent than real wages – domestic workers are producing more, are more efficient and effective, without any wage benefit to their efforts.
“Trickle-down” is the expectation that the companies bring their profits back to the U.S.A and create jobs here, but this doesn’t happen, because the low wage and profit margin is over there and they are incented, and given tax breaks to do it, and their CEOs and large shareholder investors (often foreign banks and countries like China profit on stock growth). American companies' investment in US plants and equipment as a percentage of GDP is around 10%percent, the lowest it had been since 1964.
Unfortunately for our Middle-Class this has meant that since the 1970s the Middle-class has shrunk steadily and has now been surpassed by Upper-Class, and our Middle-Class net worth has plummeted based on numerous Economic and Demographic studies. Another sad note from demographics shows that Middle-class family size has also shrunk since the 1970s and it take two and three incomes within the household to keep from declining further and faster. Glad that moral high-ground emphasis on core family values and two parent families is so important in agendas too; not to actually have a parent at home, but just to make enough money to pay for necessities of food, shelter and clothes. WORKING families mind you, in fact economists and demographers have begun using the term “working poor” for the lower income group that used to make up a portion of the “middle-class”.  Note the poverty guideline is approximately $23,000 for a family of four! Two fulltime incomes at minimum wage jobs is only about $32,000. So in a “traditional” family, a mom and a dad would be both be working fulltime at their minimum wage service jobs (since those are what our domestic economy is growing at the fastest rate, though still with a double digit unemployment rate) and little Jack and Jill would be cared for by another minimum wage caregiver or at school until they got home to be alone.
More deregulation, more tax breaks, more freedom to allow these major Corporations, Business Leaders, Politicians to take the lead to improve our domestic economy? I don’t think so  – there’s a great big crock of shit, and you know exactly where it will be emptied, and on whom.  There is a growing oligarchy and they are buying elections and elected public servants, and they are doing it clothed in Red, White and Blue while touting a moralistic family values agenda. But really it’s a reinvention of Aristocracy and Nobelmen.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Well folks shame on all of us for continuing to watch and even support this magical sleight of hand, snake-oil selling, silver-tongued, bullshit con-job over and fucking over again. I say no more. Show me just one major US Corporation, CEO, or former Congress member or Senator that has up and left the USA to live and do business under another countries tax code because they were over regulated or taxed too much here. They stay here because we are easy targets, willing Johns to their prostitution, gambling addicts sitting in their casinos knowing the house always wins. And one particular Casino owner is the poster boy – Michael Corleone has nothing on this guy.

Our Congress, Senate and President need to pull their collective heads out of these guys asses, work as a collective National Government, do some seriously hard work to redefine National interest and business interests, reverse some past shity legislation and adjust the tax codes to benefit in a more balanced way the income and net worth of all people, ensure special interests keep their greedy hands out of everyones pockets - stop the "payola", and be held accountable to the American populace -the "us" in USA. A Goverment "of the people and for the people".

IM - AG - I - NA - TION

Ø  Imagination – and the pigment of it

“Well you have quite the colorful imagination”, that is what she said to the little boy who had written in bold Crayola letters a paragraph about a young elf who became friends with an eagle and flew to beautiful places. The story was accompanied by an equally vivid and bright drawing from his handy 64-Pack Crayon container. “It’s the pigment” he said boldly with confidence to her. “It’s the what?” she asked. He stated clearly again with confidence “The pigment. The pigment of my imagination. That’s what my dad told me. He said what you said, that I had a colorful imagination. And another time when I thought I saw some fairies and elves out playing under trees in our orchard, he said that what I thought I saw was a “pigment of my imagination”, and that it was colorful; my imagination. My daddy does some painting and drawing sometimes and he said he mixes pigments to make different colors, so I guess since my imagination is so colorful it’s gotta have lots of pigment”.

I think we all have a pallet of assorted pigments to choose from in our imaginations too. I think sometimes though we lose touch with it in our on-going attempts to make rational thoughts of things in our lives. We seem to need structure and try to keep things black and white. I love great black and white photographs, charcoal drawings, black ink and shading in art. A well executed rendering in black and white, or an excellent composition with light and dark contrast can be riveting and dramatic. Images captured, images created. Im-ag-i-na-tion.

I Imagine, if you use the pigments of your Imagination, you too can capture a great and inspiring Image. It may come to fruition in any number of ways as you pursue the action and task at hand to accomplish it. The work and labor of the task must always begin with the idea and an image in mind of the outcome and final result.

I think the broader you allow for your experiences to build on the pigments you have to add to your pallet, and the more open you are to choosing a broad variety of them for expression, the better for it you and all you touch will be.  Think bold, think inclusive, think outside your box, and keep building your collection of colors to add to your crayon toolbox, and never stop stretching your imagination. Soon that “figment” of your imagination of what you might be, you might do, – is being done with passion and flare, boldly and colorfully!

May your soul be full of color and your imagination never-ending. Peace.

"color creek" - CristPix Creative Images copyright 2012

Independence needs you

Ø  Independence –

There is a certain contradiction in our American value of individual freedom and independence, especially as it relates to community, people known and unknown, acquaintances, friends and even family. I love that we cherish freedom and independence; that our nation was built on that foundation. That so many of our ancestors came here to get away from oppression, tyranny, persecution, or others who were here, or came involuntarily, we all had the personal intention and expectation to live freely and have personal independence. We all still strive for this and place it very high on our list of personal values, core beliefs, and “rights”.

The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence all relate to freedom, independence, liberty of people. They also all speak eloquently and directly to the collective of “the People”, the collective inhabitants of the separate States and the United States. These documents are all Charters of our Government; language written to establish rule and hence a collective governance to provide the “people” means of equity, fair-dealing, representation, and direct participation in our pursuits of Life, Liberty and Happiness.

They expressly state matters of equality and separate from a specific religious doctrine, but make no doubt they are all in place to govern, to provide a safe and equitable opportunity for all citizens. The language most know is:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. But just after that the Declaration states “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”.

Our very rights as individuals therefore are established and protected with our consent to a Government of our choosing, as a people with individual choices, but by majority consent through an established governing body. It also states shortly after “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes”.

So there is where we have the personal challenge of contradictions in our individual, vs “we the people”, rights and governance to pursue Life, Liberty and Happiness, to have Independence and Freedom, and how we see and determine what is “equitable”. If you add to the governance quandary, our spiritual or religious dogmas, you can clearly see the challenges we all face and play out our entire lives.

What I find most interesting though is the basics of most governing laws pretty much align with the commonalities in the World’s religions: It is wrong to Lie, Steal, and Kill. We should embrace all living creatures with compassion, respect, peace and non-violence, do not covet.

We have the independence and freedom within our heart and soul to choose happiness, take actions that are compassionate, giving and loving, for a United Humanity. We just have to get over ourselves, get past our Egos, in order to contribute to the greater good of community, society and all the earth. See it isn’t about “me” or “you”, it is about “us”. This is exactly why our current politicians in government  continue to fail US, they are still too caught up in their own power, self-worth, partisanship, greed and alliances to PACs and large financial contributors, Corporations “too big to fail”, to actually humble themselves to “serve” their individual voting constituency first and foremost, rather than their identified party and platform. Our Government has the appropriate democratic structure and underpinnings set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. What we no longer have is a national agenda, and elected representation, in place to serve those ideals at their core for the equality, benefit, independence, freedom, liberty and justice for all.

Use your independence to take the time to research those you may be voting for, read the Pros and Cons, look at their collective record. What’s on their resume to take a government, tax paid public job to serve you and I – are they qualified; have the performed as you want them to? Forget the paid propaganda and political advertisement bullshit, ignore and forget the bandwagon, banner-waving, drum-beating hyperbole that comes from special interests and other self-centered egomaniacs that thrive on soapbox hysteria. Think and act with responsibility for your family, neighbor’s community and it will be good for you as a part of that body.

Think and vote with informative choice and intention to have those elected truly be accountable to your community, not to their deep-pocket special interests.

Photo credit CristPix Creative Images - copyright all rights reserved

Art and so much more

Ø  Art, music, meditation, prayer –

I was speaking to an artist at a gallery last week and something struck me that I hadn’t quite noticed or acknowledged before. She said she often looked upon a completed piece and was transported to the time, place, the setting, and often reflected on what that experience meant to her. She explained that she often still saw details that she hadn’t captured in the art piece but that were with her still. She explained that she was often challenged with the material composition of what her mental reflection was at the time and the thought of what she wanted to convey. That was what dictated the final outcome of the piece.

I spoke to her about how the image pulled me in and I mentally composed a quick image and story beyond what was there on canvas as to how the session may have taken place, what situation drew it all together, what relationship there was or wasn’t in the subject and setting.

She didn’t elaborate on the story behind the painting we were speaking about, and I found that I didn’t really want her to. I was happy in my story of her painting. She did however elaborate that she often spent time in thought, meditation and even prayer about her work as it progressed and at those times where she struggled with the creative flow and talent to execute the physical painting of what her mind was showing her. That, she said, evolved and changed quite often as a piece was in process. The piece we were discussing she said was actually one of many different attempts or variations. That the one I was seeing now took several months to complete. Not that she worked on it directly that entire time, but rather reflected on it, contemplated the work, thought of the story, did and redid things in her mind and on canvas pieces over and over.

After that discussion I found myself thinking about what things came to mind as I looked at different pieces on display throughout the gallery and wondered about them and also about what else was behind their coming to be and how they manifested to now be hanging there. I thought about my own “art” in photographs that I take, pottery that I make, writing that I do. There is so much more to those things than what is ever “on display” for others. There are always many versions and attempts at a thing, and at some point we deem it worthy in our mind to release it and share with others. Same was true for the music I had playing in my car. I thought about how often I heard music, live or recorded that actually took me somewhere. Sometimes, back to an event or a place and time, a period in my life, or sometimes it took me on a voyage into some subconscious place I was manifesting.

I too, have seen paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, weavings and even Nature that pull you in and transported you to wherever. A transcended place and time. You are where you are physically, but you’re not “there”, in mind and soul.

That is what “Art” does. And that is what I believe true meditation or prayer can do. What is hard for us all is to first provide an opportunity to allow for that openness and awareness to manifest, unforced and not to our will, but to our being. Not as a request or desired outcome per se, but open to free-will of what may be, and not just for ourselves but for others beyond us as a whole society.

I have seen acts of kindness, images of affection, and beauty in many things, and I have seen violence and pain, things that were horrible and ugly. They each had an effect of the present and of a lasting impression for me. I can go there as I recall them. The mind is a powerful thing. It takes experiences and information, and combines it with emotions and thought, and then allows for your choice in expression. So does Art.

Be Artistic my friends. Meditate and find your happy-place, find your inspiration within you and from around you. Your life and how you live it is your canvas, so choose your medium of artistic expression with care, work on it with pride, express it with love and joy for the mutual benefit of all. Give and share your Art with others.

Peace -

This photo has a story, and I may tell it to you some day, but until then, create your own story from viewing it and see where the picture takes you. Let yourself go, happy thoughts!