Working in Sunshine and Storm

A thumbnail work in progress...pastel.

The entire purpose of true education is to make one not only know the truth but live it– to make one enjoy doing right, make one not work in the sunshine and run away in the storm, but work midst clouds of wrong, injustice, envy hate; and wait on God, the strong deliverer, who will reward righteousness and punish iniquity. "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." --MB Eddy

One of my favorite quotes that has been around my desk since high school. While I haven't always enjoyed the challenge of working in sad times vs. glad times...I'm learning to truly appreciate it now. If you can't do what you love through thick and thin...you haven't really learned to love what you do.

Reflections of the Past

Self Reflection, digital image

It's that time of year. Everyone gets a little edgy about what they've accomplished in life, and naturally reflects on their past and where they are going. But I'm really tired of well meaning inferences to how our past makes us who we are today. I mean, if our past was bumpy and challenging, does this make us broken?

Only the good in our past stays with us and makes us who we are...it's not what terrible things that have happened to us that shape us...it's how we rise like a Phoenix out of the ashes and are reborn of Spirit that makes us who we are and have always been. Maybe past reflection gives us a better view into who we really have been all along.

General thought today maintains that the future is created by the past, and that, like human machines, we repeat our past in our tendencies. It is further held that if we would be free of our past, we must have breakthroughs in consciousness, or we cannot do anything new.

I want to challenge this mode of thinking.

The past is actually defined by the present and by the future...and not the other way around.

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." --George Orwell

A prayer for our oceans and their friends

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,
and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
thou hast put all things under his feet:

All sheep and oxen yea, and the beasts of the field;

The fowl of the air,

and the fish of the sea,

and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

KJV, Psalm 8:4-8

Sacred Space: A soul's quest to Oregon

"This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you might find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen. Your sacred space is where you find yourself again and again."
--Joseph Campbell

Where is your sacred space?
Your studio? Your home? Your heart?

My sacred space in in self-discovery... and wherever that may take me. Today, it took me to West Linn, Oregon.

Cannon Beach Sunset, 7x5" pastel

Cannon Beach Sunset

7" x 5" (17.8cm x 12.7cm)
Pastel on Board
SOLD

I loved the way the light changes so quickly in Oregon. One minute it's foggy, the next, clear and strong. This painting marks a dark but dramatic sunset. I was happily settled in my hotel room right on the beach...a little bit o' heaven on earth!