Praise for the Gifts of this World

Spring sent me a singing telegram

This evening as I climbed from my car

I heard the peepers in full chorus

lifting the weariness from my spirit

and smoothing the angry and

unquiet wrinkles of 2 hours of taillights

after a long day at work.

“Do you have doubts about life? Are you unsure if it is worth the trouble? Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each face as you pass on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground. All these things are for you. They are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face the east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It’s okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise.”

Miranda July, from Shared Patio,

collected in “No one belongs here more than you”

Posted in All part of the process, Being Human, discovery and recovery, my life, my museum of inspiration, Other peoples words, paying attention, philosophy, poetry, Singing, spring, thinking in words, whereever you go there you are, wonder world | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

2022 Graphic Journal page #8: Feb. 4 – Feb. 6

131st Street

Posted in All part of the process, Being Human, Collage, internal landscape, mindworks, Other peoples words, paying attention, poetry, Self-Experiments, The Moon, Works in Progress | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Images of January

Posted in Art in Nature, capturing light, Check this out, My Art, On the Salish Sea, Walking, winter | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

2022 Graphic Journal page #7: Jan. 24 – Feb. 3

Convert to Ambiguity

Posted in Abstraction, All part of the process, Being Human, bodyworks, capturing light, change, Collage, investigations of color, mindworks, My Art, paying attention, Self-Experiments, Works in Progress | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Attitude Adjustment

Isn’t all this miraculous? Why not wonder at the multitudes we contain and intertwining of living and inanimate matter? How glorious to be alive and willing to ponder it all and not shrink from any of it. We are the universe perceiving itself in all its messy mindless chaos and miraculous organization. I am not horrified with life but find it a great reassurance against the idiocy and wretchedness that is human striving and distraction. There may be horror if you look for it, but wonder is there as well.

“The self, the place where we live, is a place of illusion. Goodness is connected with the attempt to see the unself… to pierce the veil of selfish consciousness and join the world as it really is,”

Iris Murdoch 

“The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

Posted in All part of the process, Being Human, mindworks, Other peoples words, paying attention, philosophy, thinking in words | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment