Posted on by BWThomas

Contentment and happiness. Are we content where we are, or are we waiting for something to make us happy?

Are we content where we are, or are we waiting for something to make us happy? Contentment and happiness.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Forget yesterday – it has already forgotten you. Don’t sweat tomorrow – you haven’t even met. Instead, open your eyes and your heart to a truly precious gift – today. Steve Maraboli

A wise person does not grieve for what they don’t have but rejoices in those things they do have. Today is a wonderful day, we’ve never seen this one before.

Are we content where we are, with the season and circumstances we are in? Are we waiting for something to happen so we’ll be happy? We’ll be happy when we get married, after the baby comes, after the baby goes to school, when the baby finishes school, university, gets married, and makes us a grandparent, etc. We can wait away our life for the when we thought would make us happy. There is no moment when everything will be perfect. If we are waiting to exhale, we are focusing on the wrong things.

Today is our day, with all its problems, potential, joys, and sorrows. This is it, and when tomorrow comes it will be today. We only get to enjoy today, hope for tomorrow, and look back on yesterday. When we realize we should have enjoyed yesterday it’s in the past not to be relived. Hopefully, we enjoyed it when it was today.

On Monday I found out one of my aunts died at age one-hundred. Her husband was born on October 16th, he died on October 16th sixty-four years ago, and she died on October 16th. She spent a few years as a married woman but most of her life she was a widow and had to finish raising their sons alone. We don’t know how life will work out which is why we need to be happy in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.

Today is the day we have to enjoy, love, celebrate, and be grateful for the beauty and bounty in our lives. We don’t know how long we have or what circumstances we will be in. We don’t know if tomorrow will be better than today so enjoy today, be happy today.

Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melody Beattie

Remember the song, “I’d trade all of my tomorrows, for a single yesterday.” Did they enjoy yesterday when it was theirs to enjoy or only in retrospect? Life always comes with challenges. Being single had its challenges and being married has its. Working for someone has challenges, having our own business has challenges, and being retired has its own challenges. Living in the country has challenges, and living in the city also has challenges.

We might be asking “Are we there yet?” Where is there, and what are we expecting it to be when it comes? Often there is no there. Because what we think of as there is a new set of challenges we weren’t expecting. Life is a journey of ups and downs, springs, summers, falls, and winters. We may feel we are always playing catch-up. Just when we think we’ll have enough, it isn’t enough anymore. Is the secret, knowing that what we have is enough no matter what that is?

If we are alive obviously we have enough to keep on living. Can we be content in the circumstances we find ourselves in?

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. G. K. Chesterton

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. Robert Brault

If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get. Frank A. Clark

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to everyone that reads my books and a special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the Amazon link below and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Stealing like an artist, remixing old ideas. Find your voice and you find yourself.

Find your voice and you find yourself. Stealing like an artist, remixing old ideas.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

There is no such thing as a new idea. Mark Twain

What a glorious weekend for a hike. The trees are ablaze in all their autumn glory. The sky was a certain shade of blue, the air crisp and invigorating.  About twenty-five of us went for a lovely hike on Saturday morning. We were home by lunch with the rest of the day spreading before us.

Yesterday I met a friend for tea and signed my children’s book she’s giving to nieces and nephews and one for herself. I found a beautiful children’s book at Value Village yesterday. I’m collecting them for reference on color schemes and how they are illustrated.

There is a phrase, steal like an artist. It means we get inspiration from other people’s work and incorporate those ideas into our own original work. We might find a great color scheme from one and a rhyming scheme from another. We might look at how people are depicted and how trees and landscapes are rendered.

Van Gogh’s Starry, Starry Night is one I used in my children’s book. The idea behind stealing like an artist is to honor, study, steal from many, give credit, transform, and remix. If we degrade, skim, steal from only one, plagiarize, imitate, or rip off then we are not doing it right.

I don’t know if how I used Van Gogh’s Starry, Starry Night passes the test. In my own mind, it does and people who read the book will make up their own minds. We may not know what, “Finding our voice” means, but over time we develop a style that is our own. We might not even realize it is happening but there becomes cohesiveness in the colors we choose, the way we depict trees, rocks, or people, and how abstract or real we depict our subjects.

When we are in the creative process things will jump out at us that we can add to our work. Instead of creating a tree from our mind, we find a tree that has an interesting shape. When we use reference material instead of just our imagination we are more likely to get it right. It is hard to imagine how folds of fabric fall, and paint them in a believable way but when we look at a reference photo we are more likely to render it correctly. Our reference library can become quite large. We want to be able to look up how a cardinal’s feet grip a branch, or how they would sit on someone’s hand. Even with reference material, we may not get it correct, but we can figure out what isn’t quite right. Sometimes we can fix it in that painting, sometimes we have to do another painting which still might not be quite right because getting things perfect is difficult.

Find your voice, shout it from the rooftops, and keep doing it. Dan Harmon

Perfection is the enemy of the good. If we strive for perfection often we will give up, we will never publish the book because it will never be good enough. We all have to decide when something is “Good enough.” Then we can move on to a new project.

A life of creativity is about change. We move forward, take chances, and explore new frontiers. We try new recipes, we find new fabrics for our quilts, we find something new to explore in our painting, we discover new plants to grow in our garden, and we can take photos of new vistas. Living a life of discovery and adventure is not about the big things. We can find a new hiking trail in our own backyard. We don’t have to lament we can’t travel to far-flung places. We can cook with new spices, or maybe it’s time to go back to our roots and rediscover the food we loved as a child.

Life is a journey we need to keep growing, developing, and finding joy in what is before us. We all have the sun shining on our faces, the wind blowing in our hair (If we have hair), and stars and the moon above us. Beauty and bounty are all around us. Inspiration is everywhere. There isn’t enough time to do everything. We can create what calls out to us to create, admire what calls out to be admired, and be grateful for what we have and who we are.

Life is a journey and we can choose to enjoy the scenery along the way.

Work is never finished, only abandoned. Paul Valery

It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. Susan Sontag

A lot of people are so used to just seeing the outcome of work. They never see the side of the work you go through to produce the outcome. Michael Jackson

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives of posts click on the picture, and scroll to the end.

Thank you to everyone that reads my books, and a special thanks to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link below and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Being creative feeds our soul. When we find our voice we find ourselves. Life is a journey of self-discovery.

When we find our voice we find ourselves. Life is a journey of self-discovery. Being creative feeds our soul.

Happiness is an inside job. Don’t assign anyone else that much power over your life. Mandy Hale

Do we let our insecurities stand in our way or do we face them? Do our fears hold us back or do we overcome them? What does facing our fears and overcoming insecurities look like?

How hard must it be for people who make their living with their looks to know everyone scrutinizes everything about them? Many of us who don’t make our living with our looks feel scrutinized.

Tomorrow an artist statement video is being filmed. How many of us really like how we look in pictures? Some people look better in pictures than they do in real life but the rest of us… Maybe we need to get okay with how we look because when we look back on those pictures in a few years they will look better to us.

On YouTube, some people seem comfortable with themselves and others do not. In my video I don’t want to seem preachy, or like I’m giving a speech and I don’t want to be a talking head. What I want is the B Roll shots to tell the story about my art and writing, and my words to encourage others.

Creativity feeds our soul, and when we find our voice we find ourselves. Art and writing have been important to me throughout my life. We don’t know what we can do until we do it, and we don’t know what something will be until we complete it.

Life is a journey of self-discovery and when we finish a project we need to start another one because it is in the creating that we find joy.  

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. Marcus Aurelius

There is a certain amount of joy in stress. When we aren’t quite sure we can pull something off but in the midst of creating it we are completely enthralled with the process. This is where we find flow, and the joy of creativity enlivens us. There is a certain amount of stress to making a big dinner, a party, big celebrations, and the preparations are a big part of the fun.

It isn’t what we create that makes our life, it’s that we create. Some days we create dinner and some days it’s just something on the table to eat. There is a difference. This is why we like to try new recipes.

How we live our ordinary days is how we live our life. We need to find a balance between order and chaos, creativity and routine.

I’m looking for music to set the mood for my video. I found Beethoven’s Ode to Joy played by four saxophone players. Beethoven is in the public domain but is the performance copyrighted? Hagood Hardy’s, The Homecoming speaks to me. Do I really need to worry about copyright on a video that I am not making money from? If it gets played on YouTube and flagged as a copyrighted work it sounds like I have to agree I do not own the copyright. If money is made from it the artist has to get paid which is fair.

Is life what we make it, do our thoughts and words have power? Is every day a day to create, celebrate, and be grateful for the bounty and beauty in our lives?

Don’t rely on someone else for your happiness and self-worth. Only you can be responsible for that. Stacey Charter

The greatest part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances. Martha Washington

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet. James Oppenheim

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to all who read my books. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link below and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Be an encourager of others. Helping others to reach their goals helps us to meet ours. Are we looking on the bright side?

Helping others to reach their goals helps us to meet ours. Be an encourager of others. Are we looking on the bright side?

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

If you want your dream to come to pass, help somebody else’s dream come to pass. Joel Osteen

Last night I asked myself, “What will I write about tomorrow?” When I looked over at my bedside table I’d taken the book I was reading downstairs and instead of going down to get it, I picked a different book off my shelf. “The Power of I Am” by Joel Osteen, he promises two words will change our life. Those two words are I am … What we say after I am has a big impact on our life.

Do we say we are perfectly and wonderfully made or do we say we are stupid, ugly, old, and unwell? Do we say I am rich, healthy, prosperous, content, happy, loved, and blessed, or do we say I am poor, broke, unhappy, mistreated, unloved, used, abused, and unwell?

Are we lying if we say we are well when we are unwell? Even if we have some problem don’t we still have many things we can be grateful for? Another author tells us instead of saying things we think are lies we should ask our self why are we rich, healthy, content, happy, prosperous, blessed, and loved? The idea is to look at what we have with a grateful heart, and to find contentment where we are as we work, dream, and aspire.

It is a fault of mine to look at institutions and think they should be better. They also could be worse and I should be grateful they are not. When it is in my power I should contribute to making things better instead of moaning about what they are not. If we are moving towards whatever it is we constantly say, then we better watch what comes out of our mouth, and even the thoughts we think.

If we stumble upon a lotus in the muck are we seeing the lotus or only the muck? Can two people be living the same life and one see things positively and one see things negatively? Would it seem like they lived with different circumstances even though to anyone looking on they have the same life?

When you’re in peace, it’s a position of power. Joel Osteen

We are told to, “Call the things that are not, as if they already were.” Instead, we often call the things that are as if they will always be.” When we describe our situation negatively we bring more of what we don’t like upon ourselves. We are told we can use our words to bless instead of curse the situation.

Joel Osteen says his daughter looked at the cover of two of his books. She thought he looked better on the cover of the one where he was ten years older. Haven’t we all seen people who are aging beautifully, with health, and vitality? What if we have a choice to age well with a sharp decline at the end or age poorly with a long decline of ill health? What if that is more up to us than we realize?

Some people prosper making the same amount of money others feel broke on. What if that too is a choice? What if good and bad marriages have the same amount of problems and the difference is the attitude of the couple. Could two people be in the same marriage and one thinks it is a good marriage and the other is thinking it isn’t? In my own family, I hear different views of things and wonder how we can see things so differently.

What if it isn’t so much what happens to us in life but our attitude? What if that is what makes the difference? Is that in our control? What if we can be happy amidst the most horrendous of circumstances, and unhappy in the best? What if living a life of gratitude and generosity is a choice we make daily and is not at all dependant on the circumstances in our lives? Does a merry heart doeth good like a medicine?

Don’t wait for people to approve you, affirm you, or validate you. Joel Osteen

What limits you is what you’re believing. Joel Osteen

We all go through the valleys, but the valleys are what lead us to higher mountains. Joel Osteen

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives of posts click on the picture, and scroll to the end.

Thank you to everyone that reads my books. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon links below and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Does creativity lead to happiness? Are we as happy as we choose to be?

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Happiness is not by chance, but by choice. Unknown

Creativity feeds our souls. We have to continue to feed our souls throughout our lives. Our best garden will need to be replaced by our next one. When we look at some people’s body of work we wonder how they are so prolific, it is because they keep creating.

There is something about the process of creativity that enlivens us. We expect elation at the completion of our projects but completing that project leaves us with emptiness in our life we aren’t sure what to do with. We were consumed with the project. We let other things slide in our life while we worked on it. We had dreams and nightmares about it. My mind is percolating but not at full speed like it was the last couple of months of the project when I was busy completing it.

Is this why we sometimes don’t complete things? If it is never complete we will never feel the emptiness. We also won’t feel the sense of accomplishment, we made a bargain with ourselves and we kept it. This emptiness can only be replaced by something else.

We always need to have another mountain to climb, another painting to paint, a song to sing. If I wasn’t working on a series I think the emptiness I feel after putting out When Can We Get A Puppy would be greater. I had planned to visit Mom after the book was published but visiting her in August worked out beautifully for everyone and didn’t impact my writing as much as I thought taking a break would.

We often don’t expect the feeling we get after something is completed, or we thought it would feel differently. We thought satisfaction upon completion would be as great as the joy of doing, and it isn’t. The joy is in the creation.

It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project. Napoleon HIll

This is where we get things wrong. We think getting acclaim for our accomplishments is worth more than it is. We think famous artists get more out of their art than people who paint in their basement. We think we will be happier when we publish our work than when we are creating it. We think it matters if someone likes our work.

It matters if someone likes our work if we are reliant upon the income from that work. This is why in the book “Of Human Bondage” the character was told by his art instructor if he wasn’t of independent-means he should find another way to make a living.

That sounds like harsh advice but struggling to make a living is not something we should set ourselves up for if we have other choices. As artists, we can make a living and still do art. We may think we would enjoy life more being in a successful band, or if we were a successful author, but there are always prices to pay.

In the book “Stumbling On Happiness” we are told no matter what happens to us, good or bad, we will be about as happy in six months as we are now. Win a million dollars or get into a terrible accident the happiness level in six months is the same. How can this be? Happiness is an inside job. Situations outside of ourselves have less impact than we think. Wow, that means our attitude is all up to us. That’s a scary thought; this means if I get lots and lots of sales or few sales it won’t mean much to my state of happiness. Can this be true?

Once our needs are met for housing, food, and security extra doesn’t add that much to our life. Yet, we spend our lives waiting for the next thing we acquire or the next rung on the ladder we reach to make us happy. It is the doing that makes us happy not the end result of the doing. There is satisfaction upon completing something, acquiring something, or accomplishing something but it opens the way for our next acquisition, accomplishment, or project.

Perhaps what we need to be doing as we are nearing the completion of something is to be planning what we will do next. Instead of waiting until we are finished and left with a hole where our project or our work used to be, we have the beginnings of something else in mind. This is why we are told to prepare for retirement.

True success is not a project but a journey. Myles Munroe

Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open. John Barrymore

I don’t expect to retire. Every man must work, that’s his natural destiny. Henry Ford

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, or see archives of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to everyone that reads my books. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the Amazon link below and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Happy Thanksgiving Day! Can we count our blessings every day and live each day with a grateful heart?

Can we count our blessings every day and live each day with a grateful heart? Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance. Eckhart Tolle.

Happy Thanksgiving Day. We have so much to be thankful for. We all have some problems, sometimes they can be overwhelming but if we can find and focus on what we have to be grateful for instead of the problems, life is better.

We are more fun to be around when we see the sunny side of life. Gratitude magnifies the good in our life and ingratitude magnifies the bad. If we get what we focus on then choosing what we focus on is very important.

Is it easy to be grateful when we live in a land of peace and plenty? I hear a lot of grumbling and even grumble myself some days.

The opposite of lack is abundance. Having a grateful mindset doesn’t mean we have everything we want, it means we are grateful for everything we have. How often have we said we can’t afford something when we mean we don’t choose to buy it? Are we grateful we have the choice? I’ve heard people lament over the amount of choice they have in the marketplace. Really, this is a complaint because with all that choice we don’t know what to choose.

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around. Willie Nelson

We are told to focus on what we want and be grateful for what we have. Living this way makes the best of what we have and the future. This makes sense. There are times in my life when I wanted to be a writer but I didn’t want to focus on it because then I had to act on it. I would be accountable for the amount of writing I did or didn’t do. We can’t call ourselves a writer if we don’t write. I don’t feel bad that I focused on the kids and not my writing because now I focus on my writing and the kids (adults) can focus on and manage their own lives.

It is a joy to have art and writing to focus on in this stage of life. Creativity may be an antidote to some of the negativity that is being focused on. Is it good to live in our own little bubble of positivity? Dealing with only what is ours to deal with? If we do our civic duty and vote then isn’t it the job of the people voted in to run the country to the best of their ability and if we let them do that it may be better for everyone. Why wring our hands over decisions that aren’t ours to make when we have so much of our own business to manage. Business, that often doesn’t get managed when we are trying to manage everyone else’s. What if we each got our own house in order before criticizing others? What if we are thankful for all the abundance in our lives?

Don’t we feel grateful every morning when we turn on the tap, flush the toilet, make coffee, or cook something? Just think what it would have taken for all of those things to happen not that many years ago. Many of us haven’t lived with having to haul water, go to an outhouse, or start a fire before cooking. It isn’t that many years ago that was the reality of life. Most of us don’t have to kill something before we can eat.

Sometimes we worry about what the future holds, but the future for many of us has gotten better and better? We are problem solvers and if we each solve the problems in front of us and let others solve the problems in front of them, we will continue to move forward making life better.

Worrying doesn’t do anything but being grateful for what we have, that’s a game-changer.

It is better to light a candle, than to curse the darkness. Chinese Proverb

When you focus on what you lack you lose what you have. When you focus on what you have you get what you lack. George McKeown

The thankful heart opens our eyes to a multitude of blessings that continually surround us. James A. Faust

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you for reading my books. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link below and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Finding inspiration, do inspired people inspire others? When we see what others can accomplish do we think we can do it too?

When we see what others can accomplish do we think we can do it too? Finding inspiration, do inspired people inspire people?

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

If you want to succeed, focus on changing yourself, not others. Unknown

Tonight I am to give an inspiring speech at Toastmasters. What makes an inspiring speech? How are we inspired and how do we inspire others? I’m beginning to believe most if not all of this is an inside job. We don’t inspire others. If we are inspired we find inspiration in others and it inspires us more.

When I think of the kind of inspiration a lot of us would like to be able to give, we want to light a fire under people who need a fire lit underneath them. We want to change those who do not, will not, or cannot change. The inspiration they need will not be pushed on them by someone. They will search it out, stumble upon it themselves, or see a light in the darkness they can move toward.

Part of this seems like terrible news, but part of it frees us to realize we are the change we need to see. When we are inspired we might inspire someone not because we are lighting a fire under them but because we are like a lamp that has turned on, and they can see possibilities in the darkness, possibilities for them. When we see someone like ourselves, achieve things we think maybe we can do it too. We have to come to that conclusion, no one can make us see that we can do it, or should pursue it. Inspiration then is not a push, but a pull toward something someone wants, not a push toward something they should do. We spend a lot of time trying to control others to get them to do what we want, what we know would be good for them, or what would be better for society.

My speech tonight is about what I am going to say in an artist statement video. I’m going to give a speech within a speech asking for feedback. Will it be an inspiring speech? It is not an, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” speech.” It is not a folksy Jim Rohn, inspirational speech. It might not come under inspirational speeches at all. I have an opportunity to ask, what do you think of my sixty-second artist introduction?

Don’t be ashamed of your story it will inspire others. Unknown

I’m thinking about what is inspiring. My parents moved to Northern Saskatchewan as kids during the dirty thirties. Their parents were homesteaders and there were no schools in those early days. They grew up and went their way and then they each went back, met up, and got married. When I was a kid it was an area of prospering farms, we were bused to school in town. We had opportunities my parents couldn’t dream of when they were kids. If anyone, anywhere has an idyllic childhood we did. It was an inspiring time of growth and opportunity.

We need to find inspiration where we are to make things better, to help ourselves, and to help others. We shouldn’t as the bible says hide our light under a bushel. We need to be inspired to find inspiration in others. Remember the song, “This Little Light of Mine.” The answer may be to find what inspires ourselves and by being inspired we may inspire others.

The question we should be asking ourselves might be what do we find inspiring? When do we feel inspired to do, to change, and to reach for something? Are we cursing the darkness, or lighting a lamp?

What you do has a far greater impact than what you say. Stephen Covey

You don’t need to be perfect to inspire others. Let people get inspired by how you deal with your imperfections. Wilson Kanadi

Be the kind of person that makes other people want to up their game. Unknown

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, or see archives of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to everyone that reads my books. A special thank you to everyone that leaves a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the picture below and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Go with the flow. Stumbling on happiness and trusting the process of life.

Stumbling on happiness and trusting the process of life. Go with the flow.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Go with the flow. Force nothing. Let it happen… trusting that whichever way it goes. It’s for the best. Mandy Hale

My flurry of work on “When Can We Get A Puppy” is finished. I hit publish on Friday and on Saturday the print edition was live on Amazon. I can’t wait to get a printed copy in my hand.

In order to have the printed edition available when I said it would be I published it without seeing a second author’s proof. When we finish a project it leaves a void in our life. Do we take a break or do we start another project right away? Taking a break is scary because it is working on a project when the creative juices flow. I have a rush of ideas now that I have been working so hard on creating the paintings for “When Can We Get A Puppy.” If I take a month or two off will that inspiration dry up?

I have a feeling it will. I am in motion now, but if I stop, inertia sets in, and it will take a lot more to start up again once stopped than to stay in motion. When I took the break to go see Mom in August it didn’t interfere with my work because I was still engaged in my projects, but taking a long break at the end of a project I think would be different.

It is why when I published Secrets and Silence I started working on Secrets and Sorrow without a break. Once I get into a project it seems I can take some time off or slow down. I’ve found through my years of painting that completing a project and cleaning up the studio without starting something new often led to a longer break than I planned. Get the next one started. Starting is sometimes the hardest part.

Don’t over-think things. Go with the flow. See where it takes you. Love is unpredictable, you know.  Unknown

Over the weekend I archived the paintings for, “When Can We Get A Puppy.” At Michael’s, I was told wax paper is suitable to separate the paintings. I made a wax paper sleeve for each painting and have a 14-inch x 14-inch plastic box used for scrapbooking to store them in. This way I can sort through the paintings without touching them. The paintings, even the ones I didn’t use will be stored together and I will put a copy of the printed book in the box. Creating systems is one of the things we have to do to keep our lives organized and storage of crafts, art, projects of any kind is a challenge.

I went looking for a Liquitex product I love but when I looked at the array of products on the shelf it didn’t seem to be there. On Google I found out the product’s name has been changed but not the product itself. When I bought it at the art store the young man at the cash said he didn’t know that, and he uses the product as well.

When we find products that work it is sad if we can’t find them again. I made the mistake of using another product and wasn’t as happy with it but in the middle of a project, I didn’t want to change in case it would be noticeable. Starting a new project with Liquitex Gloss Medium which used to be called Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish gives me a lift. Fighting to get the results we want makes things harder.

I learned a lot creating this children’s book and one of the biggest lessons is we don’t know what we can do unless we do it. There are a good number of beloved children’s books illustrated by the author. When you think you are finished you might only be partway and you don’t know what it will look like until you call it finished. At some point, we have to say it is done because there is always one more painting to make or one more line to change. Setting a goal is powerful. Meeting a goal is one of the best feelings in the world, but when you put your work out into the world you are left with a void you might not expect. There is a bitter-sweetness to ending a project you’ve poured your heart and soul into. I didn’t expect that, I thought it would be all joy.

I feel the best in the midst of creation that is when I get into the flow. Ending that flow is when the emptiness comes. It is why starting a new project is important and soon I will be in the flow again. Writing and illustrating bring my two loves together and my husband said to me, “I think this is your better book.” I think it is too.

Life is a journey, we learn as we go. Often we stumble upon our happiness. We didn’t know what we were looking for until we are in the midst of it. It is one of the reasons life plans don’t work out, we don’t know what is around the corner or the next bend, but if we ride the waves of life it can be a wild ride indeed.

Sometimes in life, there’s no problem and sometimes there is no solution. In this space – between these apparent poles – life flows. Rasheed Oguniaru

Not everything will go as you expect in your life. This is why you need to drop expectations and go with the flow of life. Unknown

We can learn a lot by watching how water relates to the world around it. It goes around any obstacle in its way. It flows downstream rather than struggling to push upstream as many of us are doing in life. It just goes with the flow. Perhaps that’s why watching the action and rhythm of water is so peaceful. Unknown

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come again and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

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