Month: June 2023

A Journey All Its Own

The painting above is called “Mountains and Sea“. It hangs in the National Gallery of Art and it was created by Helen Frankenthaler, a famous American abstract expressionist painter. I started researching Helen Frankenthaler because I read one of her quotes, and it reverberated with me. Here is the quote:

“Every canvas is a journey all its own. There are no rules. Let the picture lead you where it must go.”

The word “canvas” can be replaced by so many other words in this quote and still make so much sense. “Life” works. “Season” works. “Relationship” works. “Vocation” works. I think this is an utterly divine quote.

Helen Frankenthaler also said this:

“I don’t resent being a female painter. I don’t exploit it. I paint.”

To give this quote context, Helen was born in 1928. She did most of her major works in the 1950s-1970s. During this time period, art was still dominated by male artists. Today, we seem obsessed with labels. We label everything, even by giving people labels that essentially mean “label-less”. I think the people who are arguing for and against categorizing people in certain ways, are missing the point. Labeling anything takes away the individual essence of anything. So if anything, we need less labels. The quirky cardinal who frequents my yard and likes to noisily bark at me to remind me to fill my feeder, gets severely limited in the way of his own special individuality when I call him “cardinal” or “red bird.” Of course, he doesn’t give a damn what I call him. He doesn’t “resent being a male red cardinal. He doesn’t exploit it. He flies.”

“What concerns me when I work, is not whether the picture is a landscape, or whether it’s pastoral, or whether somebody will see a sunset in it. What concerns me is – did I make a beautiful picture?” – Helen Frankenthaler

Sometimes friends or family will discuss one of my blog posts with me and they will say “thank you, they really need to hear “such and such message”, and sometimes that message which they supposedly got from my post is a message which is equally new to me, as well. And I am so delighted by this. I believe that really good art, whether it be paintings, or poetry, or dance, is a medium that brings people closer to their own inner selves. Really good art stirs people’s emotions and inner worlds and messages from their intuition like nothing else can do. Really good art makes us more open to exploring what is behind the hidden doors of our spirit. The only thing that I ever want people to get from my writing, is a feeling of understanding and more intimacy with their own souls.

“In relations with people, as in art, if you always stick to style, manners, and what will work, and you’re never caught off guard, then some beautiful experiences never happen.” – Helen Frankenthaler

With this quote, I believe Helen is saying to live and to create with a little imagination and fearlessness. Sometimes you have to change course, add some extra ingredients, don’t get stuck on the “tried and true”, in order to experience magic in your life. Is there anything as cheerful and interesting as a “pleasant surprise”? Or as Helen Frankenthaler says it plainly in this quote:

“I’d rather risk an ugly surprise than rely on things I know I can do.”

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Soul Sunday

Happy Father’s Day! We have a lot of plans for the next 48 hours, so tomorrow’s post won’t be happening until late in the afternoon. (please don’t worry, late is better than never) Sundays are devoted to poetry on the blog. “Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.” — Percy Bysshe Shelley This is my poem for my husband today:

I always knew that you’d make a great Dad.

You’re the perfect mix of who I’d want our boys to be,

And making our daughter feel so loved and protected,

That she’ll accept nothing less for herself,

because you have shown her the way it feels to be adored.

You have made so many of my dreams come true,

This beautiful family which we have co-authored,

Tells the story of the greatest of these dreams.

Three men and a baby girl, ours to treasure for eternity.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Cracked Ring

Some of the most interesting, heart wrenching, thought provoking conversations I have had in my life have occurred with clerks who are helping me with my purchases. I am one of those people who strangers have a tendency to tell me their stories, and depending on the day, I consider this trait of mine to be a blessing or a curse. But at the very least, it is compelling to hear these random stories. This “gift” has given me an overall perspective of how rich and deep and interesting each individual life is, in this world. It’s made me less assuming about people and experiences in general.

My eldest son and his girlfriend are coming down to Florida this week, and so I wanted to buy them little “great to see you” gifts. There is a little shop by me that has various booths where people sell their wares – some homemade, some curated, some full of junk, some full of beautiful, rare things. Anyway, my son’s girlfriend collects gnomes and I knew that this one booth sells adorable handmade “lucky gnomes” that have lucky pennies cemented on the bottom of them. (Yes, I do have more than one of them for myself.) So, I picked out a gnome and then I started stressing about what to get for my son. (My son and his girlfriend are flying, so small things are in order, for it to be easy to be brought back up north.) My eldest son is a history buff and has always been interested in the World Wars, so in a booth full of antiques I found a set of WWII quarters that I knew that he would like and so I brought the trinkets up to the counter to pay for them.

The woman who was running the register was an older, animated, very talkative woman who had a deep Louisiana drawl. Earlier she had found me in the store and cornered me with drawn out descriptions of various gnome products that she would be selling in her booth in the store, coming this fall. Honestly, as I was getting ready to pay for my items, I was tired, I was cranky, and I wasn’t in the mood for random conversation. At that moment, I did everything that I could to shut off the “gift” of hearing stranger’s stories, short of being utterly rude. Nonetheless, the shop lady started asking me about the WWII quarters and I told her that they were for my history enthusiast son.

“My father was a soldier in WWII,” she said.

“Oh, wow. Both of my grandfathers served in the war, too,” I said.

“Did they come back?”

“Yes, thankfully.” I stalled a little, thinking to myself that this was sort of a strange question. Then suddenly, I understood where this was headed.

“Did your father come back?”

“No,” she said, more quiet and somber than she had been the entire time in which we were in each other’s company. “He was 29 when he went over, and he was 30 when he died.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

She didn’t seem to hear me. She kept with her story. “My mother was gardening one day and she looked down and she noticed that her wedding ring had cracked in half. For some reason, she wrote this happening on the calendar. Weeks later, she received a letter in the mail, that my father had died on that very day that her ring had cracked.” And then the clerk, forced a big, gracious, old Southern lady smile on her face and told me to come back real soon. And in that moment, I was grateful in my heart that my “gift” of attracting other people’s stories, gave to me another story that I won’t soon forget.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Hangin’ Around Friday

Happy Friday!!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!!! Before I get to my favorite for today (hint: see above), I wanted to share two interesting things. One, I just read that the reason why Redwood trees are the tallest living thing on Earth is because they intertwine their roots and they share their water. Isn’t that beautiful? What’s your “water”? (i.e. special gift or talent that was meant to be shared to make our world a more beautiful place) Share your water today, and stand taller for doing it.

And two, I had a really interesting, kind of hilarious conversation yesterday. I was doing quite a few returns at a local department store. I was being waited on by quite the colorful lady. She and I both agreed that we especially enjoy the thrill of getting quality items, at discounted prices. The lady, a quirky, jumpy, constantly smiling, slim, elfin type of a person told me, “My talents aren’t limited to bargain hunting. I’m just the kind of person who knows people. I get what a want.”

“What are you, a mobster?” her coworker quipped and we all three nervously giggled.

“No,” the confident lady replied. “For example, I get reservations where no one can get reservations. I get to the best seats at games, and I get backstage passes when I want them.”

My curiosity overcame me. “Okay, so how do you do that? What’s your trick?” I said, half-believing her.

“I just call ’em up, or I show up and I say I’m with Senator So and So’s party and then I march right to wherever I want to go.”

“Do you ever get called out?” I asked.

“Only one or two times, but then they still let me go on through, and I think it’s because they admired my pluck. The key is to have total confidence. Know that you belong in the place where you want to be, and act on it. Never show doubt.” And then she smiled like a self-pleased Cheshire cat, who was already dreaming about her next stunt to pull off.

Okay, back to the moment that you have been waiting for: today’s favorite. (See above) Another Studio’s plant animals are like jewelry for your plant babies. They are adorable and light and rest easily on even the lightest of leaves. They come in many different varieties (I personally purchased the bee and the gecko). They run around $7-$8 a piece. I got mine at a local store but you can go to their website and purchase them from there. For those plain plants of yours who don’t naturally flower, why not give them a cute little bling of their own with an A-S plant animal?

Have a great weekend, friends. Find the small things/experiences that bring a smile to your face, and buy them, and relish them and act on them (and share your water). See you tomorrow!

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Shoulders as Earrings

Recently I wrote that I keep a list of daily activities that I have decided are “must dos” for me to feel right in my world. I take into deep consideration as to what I add, and what I subtract from my list of daily essential activities. Below is something that I recently added to my “daily essentials.” If you are like me, and like so many others, you carry the bulk of your stress in your neck and in your shoulders. The following exercises were recommended to me by a medical professional. This video is short, easy to do, and invigorating. Give it a try.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Two Nags

I have two situations in my life which are driving me nuts right now. For the sake of mystery and privacy, I will keep the particulars to myself. These experiences are nothing major. I have been through much worse in my life, but they have been persistent, aggravating, longtime nags that show no sign of leaving anytime soon, despite my best efforts to liberate myself of them. I have this overall sense that if I could just rid myself of these irritations, I could finally open this new empty nest chapter of my life, with a clear, clean slate. (I fully understand that new problems always crop up soon after old problems resolve, but honestly, I am ready for some novelty, even in the way of issues to solve.) So dear readers, I could use your positive energy, prayers, juju, whatnot to ask the benevolent forces that be (whatever your beliefs are) to help me to clear these botherations off of my plate, or at the very least, to help me to stop giving attention and focus to them. If you choose to add your own situations to my Comments section (with or without details), I promise to add you, and your concerns to my prayer list, too. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And for my fellow nature lovers, last weekend my husband and I were sitting in our garage, talking, as my husband was cooling off from his biking trek, when a visitor appeared by my magnolia tree right outside of the garage.

It appeared to want to check out my “artwork”, my outdoor gallery that started out as a small melange of broken jewelry, ornaments, and garden trinkets that I just didn’t have the heart to get rid of, and then, as seems to be the way with me, it soon took on a life of its own.

This beautiful, ethereal, majestic creature is welcome to visit my yard whenever he or she feels the urge to do it. Its appearance made my day!! And if you feel an affinity for hawks (perhaps maybe even consider hawk to be a “spirit animal”), consider this the sign that you were looking for . . . .

And now, for my final thought for the day, if Al Capone called John Gotti a mobster, he would be correct. But that doesn’t negate the fact that Al Capone is (was) also a mobster. “Pot calling the kettle black.” It’s all over society/organizations/leadership these days, and yet many things of magnaminty still aren’t getting solved . . . . sigh.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Lists

*****So sorry for the delay, friends!! My server was down this morning, which is thankfully, a rare issue for me and the blog. <3

There is a common rule of thumb that for everything that you buy, you should immediately throw away/give away something else in your home, in order to avoid cluttering and future mayhem. This makes sense for our daily lives, too. I have a typed-up list of basic things that I like to get done on a daily basis: things such as doing a load of laundry, writing in my journal, sorting mail and paying the bills, writing my blog, walking the dogs, etc. These are things that are basic to my peace of mind, and give my life shape and form and order. Once these basics are taken care of, there is plenty of room to add other extraneous things on any particular day, but the things which are on this list are what I consider to be essential to my daily existence, for my own wellness and peace of mind. I am pretty careful and considerate when adding things to my DAILY list. (I also have a similar WEEKLY list.)

Lately I have noticed that I have penciled in a few other things on to my DAILY and WEEKLY lists. This is something which I am quite careful and thoughtful about. I do not take adding things to my lists lightly. As a person who treasures and thrives on spontaneity and adventure and whim, I am extremely careful to not add anything to these lists, other than what I feel is essential to my own well-being. I constantly consider and review the items of these lists to see if I can pare down, or change the frequency of anything, on them.

Why do I need to make lists for my everyday chores and daily routines? Shouldn’t these things be intuitive and habitual by now? It’s not because I am losing my memory. (although these lists will come in handy, for when I do get old and forgetful) I have these lists because I want to live intentionally. Our lives are just an accumulation of our every days, and I want to make sure that I am filling my days with things which make me feel peaceful, meaningful, intentional and happy. It makes me feel relieved and balanced when I can check off doing my daily “stuff”. Also, when I am noticing a trend of feeling overwhelmed and irritable and scattered in my life, I can see if I am letting too much other “stuff” get in the way of keeping with my daily program. It’s amazing how much space, time and energy is cleared when you check off your “to do” lists, and you also notice things which would benefit you, to add to your “stop doing” list. Also, when you write a list of things that you consistently do on an everyday basis, you might be amazed. You might give yourself a pat on the back for doing more than you ever realized. You might decide to add a couple of things or you might decide to subtract some actions.

Perhaps lists are just illusions of control. Perhaps lists are just mindful ways to be mindless. Whatever they are, lists are my way of life. They are simple tools that have helped to get me this far in my life. Without my lists, I might be floundering. As a lover of the written word, my lists are my written path for leading my life.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Monday – Funday

Credit: @Titsay, Twitter

Summer slows things down, in a different way than winter does. Summer comes after Spring, a season of rapid growth and change, and so Summer turns up the heat, in order to slow things down. It says, let’s take a pause and let’s just bask and simmer in everything that spring has brought forth. Let’s shine the light bright on everything that has come forth, and let’s just watch it all beautifully burst at the busting seams. Let it all just sparkle and explode and rejoice. Winter is an introverted, reticent, quiet, slow season. Summer is an easygoing, yet extroverted, leisurely, lulling slow season. Spring and Fall are the moments of movement and rapid change in our lives. Summer and Winter tell us to slow it all down and just be.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Soul Sunday

Welcome to poetry day on the blog. I hope that you will try to write yourself a poem today. It’s fun. It’s relaxing in the way that things which take total concentration are relaxing. Writing poetry focuses your wild, distractible, meandering mind. I wrote today’s poem in honor of Ralphie, our Labrador retriever, who has come down with Limp Tail Syndrome (it’s a thing – look it up). He’ll be alright. It’s similar to when we roll our ankles. Still, it is sad for us, to see him sad.

Limp Tail Syndrome

They say it comes from swimming too much,

It came from doing your greatest love.

It stole your wag. It stole your grin.

Your body can’t smile in your wiggly way

with the big wet soppy toy in your mouth.

It will pass. All things do. But now

Your body just grimaces and growls,

And your tail hangs limp.

You wear your emotions on your whole body,

Not just a sleeve. You don’t hide anything.

You are the embodiment of life, breath and love,

And joy and pain and listless agitation.

You are so fully you, always and ever.

Soon your sprightly tail will wag again.

Easy, light, high and fast and free and happy.

Your tail never hangs limp for long.

It’s not in your nature to be kept down.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.