Thought for The Day - The Message

You can read words until your head spins,
You can sit in a sweat lodge until every pore pours water
You can meditate until your transcendental spirit floats out to the stars

But the message you want is where you are.
It's no mystery because it is written and spoken in a familiar language
It speaks in patterns and rhythms
In images that haunt long after they out of view
Listen, but don't fixate
Heed, but stay in the present...

Thought for The Day - Good Little Soldier

sketch for Pre-Dawn Light 18 x 24 charcoal

The daily grind; it's ingrained in your head, beaten in by routine and a sense of safety and security. You have become an expert at "getting it done," and to the world around, you're the model citizen.

But you honestly despise the course of your life and have for a long time. From the time of day you wake to the time you go to sleep, your root emotion is anger and frustration at the direction your life takes. Oh you wouldn't readily admit it, "responsible adults" are supposed to go to jobs and earn money and pay bills. Isn't that what everyone does? But everyone also struggles with weight, diet, exercise and downing that handful of prescription drugs that never quite cures their ailments. And for everyone, the only relief experienced occurs for a few brief hours in the evening and on Saturdays. And everyone assumes this won't end until retirement, that time of "magic" when the only expectation is living on a fixed income and waiting for the long sleep. But while "everyone" is feeling and living this way, you secretly ask yourself: "Is this really all there is?"

In the back of your head, tucked in the corner of the attic of your thoughts, is a notion of another way to live. And secretly, you believe you can live above the daily rush, the trips to Home Depot for fertilizer and the annual doctor exams that never resolve your ache. You believe not a single cure exists for what "ails you," but an overall dramatic change can dramatically alter your existence -- from the inside out. And who knows, maybe that can affect everyone around you. 

But go on, be a good little soldier, and rush off to work, now... Or...

Thought for The Day - Pushing Aside

Pre-Dawn Flight 30 x 40 Oils

The season of "Spring Cleaning;" removing the clutter of the last two seasons, shedding the shell that held us fast till Winter's chill ebbed. Brutal was the repeated blows of cold, snow, wind and darkness and what survived, we that live, are waking and moving about.

I find myself busy, this Saturday morning, so much so, two hours go by without notice. Laundry, cleaning and planning occur and I haven't touched my work. Staring at the canvas, the image "Dance of Her Soul," laying on it's side and the blank, white canvas and wall, there is work to do. Energy isn't urgent, but like a stream of water, it flows as it always has; the source of it, endless and unseen. The shame would be, allowing this time and energy to be wasted by fear and frustration. While I'm planning -- a typical activity that can be the "ends" in itself -- I act; I push aside clutter on surfaces that have held energy and concentration for too long. Closet spaces also hold certain trauma, and they are cleaned out as well.

The process, the "cleaning" is as necessary as gathering and preserving. My friends, recognize the season.

Thought for The Day - Discovery

After the Dance 18 x 24 mixed media

We can never know all there is to know and yet it behooves us to know all we can...

Years ago, I dated a young lady who, before I met her, seemed like she would be a complete mystery. Being shy myself and unwilling to face rejection, I was hesitant, to say the least to approach her. I allowed her sophisticated persona to dazzle me. But in spite of all the barriers, I went for it, asked her out or at least offered her ride home from church. We talked on the way to her home and in little or no time, we were getting to know one another. For a few weeks, I would give her a ride from Bible study and even picked her up a few times and in the brief period we dated, I got to know a lot of facts about her life. I found out she wasn't as aloof and sophisticated as I thought. She was no slouch, had a good mind, but she was down-to-earth and very open to talk.

At some point, in one of our long conversations, I said to her: "you're telling all of these details about you, but I still feel like there's much more you're not telling me." Like so many people I talk with, I find it's easy to get the "facts" of our lives out on the table, but we never get to the heart of who we are. We can tell about "this", reveal a little of "that" ("except, I won't tell you about the heartache I suffered as a result of _____ and how that still haunts me at this very moment.") but it amounts to "surface details." I get it, I understand; I'm not an open book, though I hope through this format, a great deal of what I think about and how I feel is revealed. Funny: it just hit me this media is an opportunity to unveil the "secret life of Eddie."

Here's a couple more interesting truths I've discovered:

• For whatever reason, some people tell a great many "half-truths" about themselves, even when they tell you their being candid, open and honest. If you dig "around" what is said, you find there's far more to the story. It always leaves me wondering why the "whole truth" wasn't told. In sharing what is uttered, I wonder about what "you" want me to know and why it's necessary to withhold what is...
• The walls we erect and the parts of us we share are all one big picture. When we ignore or highlight only one part, the damage, pain and hurt we hide does not get healed. And like our bodies, these wonderful regenerative vessels we inhabit, what could be healing, when it is 'misapplied' (or should I say "when healing is refused") we create a place where hurt spreads like a cancer.

I leave you with this quote, apply it liberally to you life: "Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part, You will make me to know wisdom." Psalms 51:6 (NKJV)

Thought for The Day - A Good Story

Sleeping Beauty 8 x 11 pencil

Shaken Up! 8 x 11 pencil

Everyone loves a good story; perhaps you love good poetry or great music or a great dance...we love the story, the human drama and seeing our lives reflected. It isn't a matter of vanity or pride, but the fact:

1. We're not alone - others feel, think, act and say the same things. It gives validity to our struggle and desire for greater; better.
2. Someone else feels our pain and hopes for the same thing.

 With visual art, the message isn't as clear, at least to those who always need their story or thoughts spelled out, but even a child can look at an image and see "something." I've read poetry where the "message" isn't immediately obvious; the words almost run together, but a story is being told. Currently, I'm listening to a song by Tony Remy & Bluey (the group, Incognito's leader), called "Between My Finger and My Thumb;" it is by far, one of my favorite songs of ALL TIME!!! Actually, the entire CD is one of my favorites, but for very personal reasons. I found it around the time when I begin painting and drawing again and the songs "speak to me," in the sense, it reminds me of my own creative flow. Songs that seem to come out of nowhere with so much depth and volume, you have to marvel at the power of God to use us fallible beings! It isn't power for the sake of manipulation or control; it's power to love, to heal, make whole and celebrate the gift of life.

But here's the thing, outside the room where I'm sitting, I can here my wife's feet on the wood floors. Outside the window, I hear the occasional car going by on the wet street and every sound tells a story! every sound, color, smell and sensation has a message for me and for you. Are you listening? Tune your "ears" to hear what is being said.

Be.

Thought for The Day - A Thousand Days

Shaken Up! 8 x 11 pencils

Mile markers on the path...

In a given day, any day, any part of the day, a thousand themes and subjects run through my head. I could post endlessly. Sometimes people come to mind, I see their faces, guess at their 'situation' (not all of them negative or difficult; just where they are at this point in their life - or could or should be) and more subjects and themes come to mind. No question or doubt what to say, just not enough time in a day...would you hear me if I told you what I thought you?

A thousand...

Points of light

Connected dots

Lines in the sand

A blessing and a curse, this sensitivity. I'm a listener and giver. I hear your pain, wish to heal, but...

I could reach across miles, whisper a word, run a gentle finger across your cheek, wipe a tear from your eye...

Speak of success, soothe a failure, sit with a loss

Words, images...for you and me.

Thought for The Day - Say It!

Filtered Divinity - 12 x 18 Pastels

Declare it

Sing it

Read it

But more importantly

Say It

Don't speak of the poison that seeps through our thoughts, our behavior and into our community. Close the door on destruction, unless you have a plan to rebuild. Let the words declare a soul, liberated and expanding at the rate of light and thought. Wake from nightmares of abused children and women, the desire of our heart, mistreated. Get up and live a life, connecting to those who are weak and dying. Be the bridge to healing and live a life full of harmony.

Our words are powerful and while they can destroy, be wise in a conscious decision of destruction. Destruction is a force, when unleashed, can reap consequences greater than our capacity to cancel. Use the power of the tongue to yield a harvest fit for God.

Thought for The Day - Open Door

An Open Channel

An Open Pathway

An Open ______

Remaining open. Not easy in a society, in a world where we move about to benefit ourselves. Even more difficult when you consider, we do it at the expense of others!

Remaining open...how does one do that? When events, seemingly without human intervention, shatter your desires and dreams? How does one continuously reach out, make connections, when, on a regular basis the world is either ambivalent or downright offensive?

I have learned this about me, though this doesn't serve as a cure: I am sensitive, I am loving and at the very least, I desire the highest good for everyone! Mind you, that means I remain Open, at the very time I feel hurt. I remember as often as possible, that "I am the offender," without trying. I say and I do; people, someone, somewhere does not agree with me and their sense of identity is challenged, i.e. bruised. But healing comes only when you welcome it. And healing can hurt.

Remain Open...there is far more to our lives than our every day experiences.