inspiration

The Coffee Can

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My first free drawing (12/24/17)

A young woman got married at the age of eighteen (like her mother had and her grandmother and all the other women in her family before her). She had five kids in quick succession. “And when the oldest child was ten, and the youngest was three months old, this woman’s husband left her.” (E. Gilbert)

To make a long story short, her heart was broken and she cried in despair. But then – that very day that she realized her husband was not coming back – she decided that the vision of her being poor and pathetic for the rest of her life was not to be. She was going to see the world someday.

The woman decided to save $1 every single day. It was not to be touched under any circumstances. This was her promise to herself. It was not emergency money.

She saved $1 every day for twenty years, filling many coffee cans.

And when the last child left the house, she went on a cargo ship (it was the least expensive way to cruise around the world). It stopped every few days and she’d disembark and see a new country.

This is the story the woman told Elizabeth Gilbert at one of her readings.

Clearly, we can decide to take fate into our own hands.

We can make our dreams come true. It might take longer than we’d like, but it can be realized.

“You can have it all. Just not all at once.”

 – Oprah Winfrey

Propulsion

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Drawing Practice #53

I am one of those people who need to exercise. If I don’t workout regularly, I feel sluggish in every way: physically, mentally and emotionally.

Listening to Shawn Anchor (happiness researcher, author and speaker), I realized a great truth in something he said: Exercise is important, because it provides proof for ourselves that working hard will give us results.

“15 minutes of cardiovascular exercise a day. It’s the equivalent of taking an anti-depressant for the first six months, but with a 30 percent lower relapse rate over the next two years.” (Washington Post)

15 minutes! Just 15. You can do this! Make a plan. Anything cardiovascular: a jog, jumping rope or trampoline, bicycling, rollerskating (my favorite)…get out there and get moving!

 

Source: Washington Post article

 

 

 

Bandit

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Drawing practice #51

She stole my most precious entity

through thoughts of pointless excess

midnight worries, daytime anxiety

the cost was heavy and sobering: my success

 

My prescription to the current blooming?

Don’t stare at screens and mirrors

Narcissus was constantly grooming

and, your destiny looms ever nearer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Dressed up and Nowhere to go

Female Emperor Penguins will walk 50 miles to the ocean in harsh whether while their male mates stand over their eggs, keeping them warm and safe. The mothers return against all odds and regurgitate food for the newly hatched chicks. The fathers – who have not eaten for two months – then go to the ocean to eat.

March of the Penguins is an amazing film. If you haven’t seen it, it’s truly inspiring. These animals embody true passion. If you’re having trouble finding motivation, watch the movie.

Attitude, Focus and Sweat

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Photo by Rob Mulally

An important skill taught in Driver’s Education courses is to keep one’s eyes where one wants to go (the safe place) and not on obstacles that one wants to avoid. For example, if your car starts to skid out of control, don’t focus on the tree you’re afraid of crashing into, but on the open road. If you focus on the tree, that’s where you’ll end up.

In life, that tree can be a metaphor for the last decades of our lives. We tend to focus on fears such as, “What if I don’t have enough money to retire?”

We live in a youth-centered society. We don’t take care of our elderly very well. So it’s no wonder so many of us fear growing old (despite the fact that it’s inevitable if we don’t die first).

When we choose to stop focusing on aging (and limitations), and start focusing on The Possibilities, fascinating things can happen:

Annie Proulx, this year’s winner of the National Book Award, and author of Brokeback Mountain and The Shipping News, did not start seriously writing until she was 58. (Bigthink)

In the middle of his prolific career as inventor and businessman, Thomas Edison’s plant was burned down by a fire – all of his work was gone. What was his reaction?

“Although I am over 67 years old, I’ll start all over again tomorrow.”

And he did, the very next day. He didn’t even let any of his employees go. Edison and his team made $10 million the very next year. (BusinessInsider)

What are you going to focus on?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CITATIONS

http://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/how-the-mind-body-connection-determines-how-you-age

http://www.businessinsider.com/thomas-edison-in-the-obstacle-is-the-way-2014-5

Sunflowers

Sunflowers are my new favorite flower. I just learned that they are “hyperaccumulators”! They absorb toxins and pollutants so well that thousands were planted in Chernobyl to absorb radiation. They were also planted in Fukushima to clean up that toxic spill.

The trick is to harvest and destroy them before they produce toxic seeds that birds could eat. sunflowers

Lion

#1: When your computer breaks down and you have to type and publish your blog on your cell phone, ROAR like a lion.

#2: When the bonus they promised to deliver in December gets postponed to February, ROAR like a lion.

#3: When Pinterest tells you that someone in Russia has hacked your account and you can’t reset your password (see #1), ROAR like a lion.

#4: When you start to feel overwhelmed, anxious, angry or depressed, ROAR like a lion.

Or…close your eyes, breathe deeply and know everything is fine.

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