Thought for The Day - Break

The beginning of "Linen, Remains Calm" 30 x 40 oils

Not as in a loss or dropping a precious crystal vase, but "break" as in stopping the swirl around you for a brief second. Stopping the flow of life, in all it's wonder. The madness and chaos, the joy and adventure of it all. Just to breathe and absorb it all. And it is an A-L-L. It is large and expansive. If one could imagine trying to expand one's recognition of what's happening around you.

You are connected to the internet at the moment. So are millions - no billions of people all over the world. You are in a location where access is possible, whether you are walking along the street, sitting in a car, at home or in Starbucks. You are surrounded by humanity, God's representation of himself in it's myriad expressions. And everything is connected. Each molecule, atom, brick, electrical outlet and fiber of hair. The air, the sky, water, even the sweat on your palms and the oil in yours skin bonds with every other molecule in the A-L-L.

Drink it in.

Pause for a brief moment





The wonder of it all

And yes, you will feel alone, disconnected, out of sorts and out of touch. You have moments when it seems no one wants to know you or feel your presence and yet, in the sea of humanity, in that same breath, that very second, billions of "disconnected" people feel the same way.

We are wonderfully damaged and healing and and communicating beings! We are connected in ways that defy logic and as it should be.

Break

A moment to reflect, grab your corner of the global/universal view.

Now let it go

The world and all of creation continues to spin along as it always has...

Thought for The Day - Watch

There is what we observe and what we want to see. When you find yourself seeing and wishing it or 'they' would do something else, that's your judgement that things "should" be a certain way. But in truth, we are always seeing, always absorbing. We hear, feel, see and hear. And when necessary, we taste. Five Senses; five primary antennae and sources of information. But there is so much more going on!

Watch. Look. See. Observe. There is a world occurring in front of us and inside us. We are more than physical beings. Though our mind perceives input from the five senses, there is far more going on beyond the range of our senses...

Thought for The Day - "There's enough to go around!"

I'm Listening 24 x 36 Oil

I remember summers in Kansas City, MO and Omaha, NE the places where my mother and father's siblings settled. The large families, with three or more children, where dinner or even breakfast was an event. Food on the tables from one end to the other. And though, as a child, I could barely eat an entire hot dog (and at this point in life, I struggle not to eat a pack of hot dogs) my relatives could put away food. But rare were the words, "stop eating so much," uttered. No, what was usually heard were the words: "have more, there's plenty."

Now as a grown man with a family of children, I look back at our meals, when my youngest was willing to have a meal with us, there was always enough to go around twice. My daughter, always a thin princess grew to eat her fair share and can cook as well as her mom. My middle son, always "husky" can eat me under the table and my youngest, now a teenager, eats his height in food, when he is so inclined to eat what we've prepared. When we have family over, please believe there is more than enough to go around and around and around!!! And someone always wants to take containers of food home. My niece always asks my wife to bring a healthy portion of potato salad by the next day. Plenty of food.

Too often in life, we act as if resources are scarce. Even in our prayers, we pray for a portion, as if the supply were meager. We pray for the success of our children, while we are barely seeing success in our lives! We are willing to put our dreams on hold or abandon them altogether, in hopes it will somehow happen for our children. And we seem to do this with the thought: "there isn't enough success to go around." Well to that I say "there's plenty to go around!" I dare say, if every living person in this world were willing to work for theirs and work for the good of their neighbor, family and foe, we would find the very universe would make it possible for everyone to achieve!

Honestly, I believe every person thinks the same to be true. But when we look at what we've accomplished, when we consider what we desire as being so far away, we 'assume' the resources are small and obviously - based on my feelings of lack - there has be a short supply of ______. But when we examine the number of mornings we wake and the sun rises, when we consider the number of times we toss food in the garbage because it's gone bad. And when we consider the times we take clothing to shelters and the Goodwill because we have more to fill our closets, you've got to know "there's plenty to go around!"