When we think of our loved ones who have passed, we tend to get sad.
I invite you to look at “death” in a different way. It’s taboo in our culture to think of the passing of a loved one as anything but tragic, but Byron Katie says we are being self-centered and selfish (we, the survivors) when we think this way.
In drawing and painting, I am cultivating “my style.” I am definitely not someone who likes (or can) make realistic faces and people. In elementary school, I excelled at stick figures with faces of tiny dots for eyes, no nose and semi-circle mouths.
But this was a fun and relatively easy portrait painting that I learned from August Wren on Creativebug.com. I like the bold colors and rough frame.
“Who would you be without your suffering*?”
Byron Katie
*suffering = anxious, sad, worried, angry, resentful…
My optometrist told me about his Corvette Stingray. He got it from a couple who purchased a brand new car and needed space in their garage. Everything in the Corvette was shot: the engine, upholstery, paint, some of the body was dented. They had it towed to his house.
Two years later, his Stingray is on the road. He fixed the engine himself. The upholstery still needs to be replaced, but the car has come back from the dead. The doc worked on it every weekend for two years.
Sometimes, our dreams might take years, because we “only have the weekends” to work on them. But with diligence and consistency, they WILL actualize.
I installed and started using Google Keep yesterday. I love it! I like the options (changing color, archiving, check boxes, adding to Google Docs) and the simple layout.
This is a great way to keep your notes connected to Google. You can also connect a collaborator on projects, send it to your email, and add drawings and pictures.
Doing deep, meaningful work requires a lot of time in quiet solitude.
I’ve been procrastinating and distracting myself from my deep work (National Board Certification, writing and illustrating Book 2).
So, I shall remove the distractions: posting and reading feeds in social media (FB, Twitter) and checking (and re-checking) the news. Honestly, reading the news and getting upset is not helping anyone. But somehow, I believed that being up to date on current events was being good citizen. As long as my vote is informed, I’m good.
Now, on with the deep work…will you join me? What are your distractions and excuses?
*Cal Newport
Joined the gym with my teenage daughters today
They both told me they wanted to start exercising (!)
We ran on the treadmill, lifted some weights…shared some laughs
Over dinner, Josie (16 and perenially anxious) said, “Wow, I feel so relaxed.”
So my suggestion today is to do something different with your kids. Put work aside and talk, laugh and move.
I sit with a few girls during lunch recess
we all like to doodle
Tomorrow (September 22) is the first day of autumn (!)
But it’s Arizona – 96 degrees and humid from a recent storm
Laura’s drawing pretty ladies shopping
Julia is sketching fashion (dresses, skirts, shirts)
and I draw ferns, acorns and other accoutrements of Nature
kids are shouting and running around us – we remain composed
