Sparkle

I took this photograph a few summers ago near the home where I grew up on Long Island, New York. It wasn't until later when I saw the actual photo that I could see the effects the light caused on the water.

Please do click on this image because you will see the sparkle magnified and gorgeous!

Today I am making a case for sparkling. Being sparkling oneself...whatever that may

mean to you. To me, it means being of good cheer and really meaning it.

I am happy most of the time because I am doing what I love and am surrounded

by people I love and who love me.

It makes a difference in the amount of sparkle one can muster.

So the more you get your ideal life in place, the more you will find it easy

to sparkle.

It has to be real, not put on, and yet sometimes I make a decision to sparkle

in the face of unfortunate circumstances or news. I've certainly had some

in the last few weeks and so I decided I would not stay stuck in these various matters,

but would consciously grab back my sparkle so that I would

1. Enjoy my self

2. Be good for others

Do whatever you have to so that you can polish off the dullness and shine with your

true self.

Networks of Strength

I have heard a great deal of sad news in the last two weeks. Just way too many losses of people for many reasons, not all of them from death. Under the circumstances, I have had to take a very big dose of my own prescription to overcome the feelings associated with all this. But I have also had the opportunity to be of service to some of those who have suffered losses and so I have been finding my own way through it to this point of view which I am expressing here today.

In order to not get stuck in the heaviness that loss can trigger, we must have networks of strength that we continue to create throughout our lives. These are the people that are truly positive and who do not minimize life's difficulties, yet they do not get mired in it and stay there, sinking lower and lower.

Find and make those connections and build them so that you will have the spirit-filled space you need when it seems that all the air was sucked out of your own. We can expand the free calm space of others by adding our own. When we need that from them, then it will be there.

I have chosen the tops of these trees against the sky to illustrate a network of strength. Without the gifts of the air, sky and sun, the network of branches that makes up the tree would fail...so look up and out and find your own networks of strength for the give and take which makes life what it is....a team effort.

Create Magic

I wish to invite you to create magic, to find magic, to look for it all around you.

These are times when magic seems in short supply, but it is only because you have stopped putting it out there, or at least enjoying what magic you find!

You are the one who can drop down into despair as well as the one who can simply affirm your own truth, the one that you want to have!

So just grab hold and say, This is me!

I can do this!

I'm in charge of the quality and magic of my life!

I do not, however, seem to be in charge of the way this blog is putting my text and photos together. Well that's not so bad! I did take this photo and now you see something magical that I caught in the window of a restaurant near where I live.

You see, magic is all around you. If you smile, it the magic will start right there on your face!

The Necessity of Contemplation - a disappearing art

This is the view out my studio window on a late winter's afternoon.

I do my best to not let the demands of the life I have created eat up the moments when I can just look and take in something beautiful.

I had friends for dinner last night and we were talking about how the demands of life in these times has practically obliterated moments of quiet contemplation and reflection. While their young son had his cell phone with him, he didn't let it interrupt our being together as friends.

The dinner table was set with candles and flowers. I had chosen a CD of quiet piano music and after weeks of intense work around here, the evening seemed almost like stepping into a church sanctuary off a busy city street.

If we don't allow ourselves uninterrupted time for our thoughts and conversations to flow, I believe there is an unknown and sorry consequence to be had for us all.

So here is to contemplation and its gifts.

Take a seat!

Each year is it a new delight to see how snow will transform the things

we get so used to that we tend not to see them anymore.

It is the happiness we had as children to see how the white fluff coats our world

changing the mundane into the magical.

And so I invite you to take a seat and enjoy the visual

pleasures of winter's gifts.

Look UP!

I have put this entire photo on here so you can see what I was doing last summer. Having a love affair with the most amazing cloud formations that went on and on and on day after day. My artist friends would call me and we would remark on what we had seen. Just quite the unusual show. You can see that I was in the car and I must admit propping the camera on the steering wheel to catch some of what was happening. Not recommended.

But I am writing today because I want you to LOOK UP! You may be missing that amazing flock of birds, or a rainbow or an icicle about to land on you....

Sometimes what is out there in our environment is so spectacular that it fairly shouts at you to notice.....like this whipped cream glory of clouds.

Paying attention

Why would I choose this photograph as my first posting for this blog?

I could have just as well had a sunset as my first entry, but then I thought it way too obvious!

As I walked up to the restaurant to meet some friends for dinner, I saw this scene. The lighting was wonderful and sort of subtle. The girl at the table lent a human presence to it that would have otherwise made it seem like a magazine ad. And I loved the repetitive rectangles throughout.

I bought a purse-sized camera last year and I am never without it. I find a huge array of possibilities in my world. Some I just admire.

Some are inspiration for my painting.

See what you can see in your every day world!