It’s a cold cloudy winter day here in Minneapolis and I don’t think I’m going to brave going out for my daily walk today. Instead I’m playing with watercolor paints and writing.
With the gray skies today I thought I might
Brighten Your Day
with some tulips combined with a watercolor painting. It’s been weeks since I’ve picked up a paintbrush but over the weekend I began painting again. And this morning I painted some more. Of four tiny abstract tulip paintings that I made, I liked this one the best.
If I let my inner critic out I realize that it is not at all what I had envisioned. However my inner child thinks it’s pretty darn nice because it was fun to do. After the paintings dried I decided to try combining this one with some of my previous tulip photographs (since I have no flowers in the house to photograph today).
I’d like to share a poem I recently discovered that I hope will also brighten your day…
This is What Was Bequeathed Us
This is what was bequeathed us:
This earth the beloved left
And, leaving,
Left to us.No other world
But this one:
Willows and the river
And the factory
With its black smokestacks.No other shore, only this bank
On which the living gather.No meaning but what we find here.
No purpose but what we make.That, and the beloved’s clear instructions:
Turn me into song; sing me awake.— Gregory Orr
I love the line, “Turn me into song; sing me awake.”
Is there something in your life that turns you into song? How do you sing yourself awake? For me it’s simple things that turn me into song, the beauty of a sunrise, giggle of a child, delicacy of a flower petal, aroma of bread baking, or a smile on a loved one’s face.
The words of the poem echo in my mind. There is “no other world but this one…no purpose but what we make.” And there is no other time than now, this moment, and this one.
Are you awake?
Are you awake in this moment or is your mind occupying some other time or place?
It’s easy to worry about the world, politics, loved ones, or the environment. The list could go on and on. I’ve been a bit worried myself about some health problems my husband is having. But I know that worrying does keeps me from being here now. So I’m practicing singing myself awake again and again when I notice that I’m lost somewhere in “what if’s.”
How will you spend your precious moments today my friends? Will you sing yourself awake?
May you walk in beauty.
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