Thought for The Day - A Measure

Birds of a feather 18 x 24 pastels

I'm Listening 24 x 36 oils

A dip in the container, the amount available surpasses what's needed. But from time to time, we look at the container and the scoop (what's inside us) as if we needed to dole it out in small portions. We measure, we calculate and somehow our calculations don't include the supply. And yet, this supply, the place where we draw from, never runs dry.

Lavish living; not spending every penny earned, but finding joy in what cannot be purchased. Or what is purchased is cherished, valued and enjoyed!

Thought for The Day - Exercise

Soul Dance 8 x 11 colored pencils

Very physical

Very demanding

Taxing the soul and mind and body

But beneficial as well...

This exercising of energy and thought and emotions. This breaking of solitary contemplation. The cessation of activity to quiet the mind. Unfortunately, we leave our mind to languish, while we drive and perform 8 hour tasks, once we learn how to do with little menal participation. I mean we sit or stand and think about stuff like, "where is that woman now? What am I eating for dinner? What was that movie, that Sidney Poitier starred in back in 196_?"

I've watched my middle son build cranes and pulleys with his toys and my weight training equipment. Then he moved to robots used for competition in high school. Now he's the consummate photographer, understanding the complexities of apertures and shutter speeds and multi-flash units. I've observed actors and actresses take on the persona of their character and do it with such little effort, you are certain that's who they are in "real life." I've listened to Sarah Vaughn sing with such velvet fluidity that I'm certain she must  have drank olive oil to keep her voice smooth. People practicing their craft or their intellect or their desire.

Exercise calls for a unity of mind, body and soul. It requires going into places where difficulty lives, where stress works for you, not against you. And it requires that you pull for sources rarely encountered in our "real world." Here's a little known fact: everyone has the ability to EXERCISE. It requires a willingness and it requires time.

Today: "bend and stretch, reach for the stars, stand on tippy-toes, reach for Mars." EXERCISE!

Thought for The Day - Upstream

The Beginning of... 18 x 24 pastels

Johnny Hartman. For the vast majority of the world, that name doesn't "ring a bell." A male vocalist of the Jazz era, with his most 'notable' work in 1963, when John Coltrane recorded an album of ballads featuring Johnny. Absolutely beautiful, velvet voice; smooth as butter creme! And this is where the "rub" occurs: with talent like that, why isn't he world renowned?

It's a mystery; there are people around us with great intellect, great talent, a great personality and yet, many with less of the former are carried on the shoulders of the media and adoring fans. People stand in lines, Google names of their favorite poets, artists, singers and the "great minds," to catch a snippet of their lives. Why? How does it change or affect their lives?

Each one, reach one. To the one you reach, the singular person who cant wait to read your words, hear your voice, you are a star. And be true to you, what talents and contribution you bring to the world. No one person is the center of the universe; we all have our place in it and play our part.

When I heard Johnny Hartman's recording of "Lush Life" some years ago, I couldn't get enough of his voice! I searched iTunes to find more of his music, but what I had at the time was the extent of his available recordings. In that song, there's a line where he says "I'll live a lush life in some small dive,  where I'll rot with the rest of those whose lives are lonely too." I imagined him performing in small clubs in New York, leaving the clubs just before dawn, sitting in a small diner, a cigarette in hand and hovering above a cup of coffee. He does this before making it to a small apartment and crashing until 1:00 in the afternoon. I imagined his life, the typical small-time performer, considering what 'day-gig' he could take up to make ends meet. I imagined there were those who showed up in the small clubs where he performed who just wanted to hear someone as lonely as they were and whose 'success' was as menial as his. I imagined the cigarette smoke hovering above the heads of the patrons like a dark cloud. But what I didn't consider was, here I sat, listening to his voice, loving every rise and fall of it, some 40 years after that recording. What I didn't consider is Johnny did what he loved and doing so, he reached "at least one."

Peace and Blessings