Remember that you know how to fly.

.. "Fold (not) your wings that you may pass through doors, nor bend your heads that they strike not against a ceiling, nor fear to breathe lest walls should crack and fall down.

You shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead for the living.
And though of magnificence and splendour, your house shall not hold your secret nor shelter your longing.

For that which is boundless in you abides in (a place), whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night."

Full length poem here, which is magnificent:
-Khalil Gibran
http://www.katsandogz.com/onhouses.html

I am thinking of the hard times being faced by those I love,  and people I've never met whose lives are being made harder, sometimes almost unbearable, by ideology espoused Robber Barons.

I am hoping for the time when the middle and working class remembers it's power and comes out of their houses to vote and protest, and changes the world again as it has done so many times before.

Colored pencil drawing from about 1990.

MINDFULNESS

I like this description of Mindfulness, quoted below. I will post more on this later.

http://www.livingwell.org.au/mindfulness-exercises-3/

"Mindfulness exercises allow you to be able to identify, tolerate and reduce difficult, painful and even frightening thoughts, feelings and sensations. Mindfulness gives you back some sense of mastery over our thoughts and feelings.

So what is this thing called mindfulness? Below are some definitions:

· The awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment to moment (Kabat-Zinn, 2003).

· The non-judgmental observation of the ongoing stream of internal and external stimuli as they arise (Baer, 2003).

· Keeping one's complete attention to the experience on a moment to moment basis (Martlett & Kristeller, 1999).

Put simply, mindfulness is as simple as becoming aware of your here and now experience, both internally and in the external world around you. It gives you a space in the present moment to be able to more safely deal with the distressing and painful memories of things that might have happened to you in the past. It also allows you to look at and plan for the future, even when you might have fearful thoughts about things that haven't yet happened, from a secure position of knowing that you are in the present moment. In fact, we are never NOT in the present moment - we just lose track of that fact quite often.

Sometimes it is easier to understand something in terms of what it is not. Here are some examples of mindLESSness:

· Breaking things, spilling things, clumsiness, accidents because of carelessness, inattention or thinking about something else.

· Failing to notice subtle or not-so-subtle feelings of physical discomfort, pain, tension etc.

· Forgetting someone's name as soon as you hear it.

· Listening to someone with one ear while doing something else at the same time.

· Getting so focussed on goals that I lose touch with what I am doing right now.

· Getting lost in my thoughts and feelings.

· Being preoccupied with the future or the past.

· Eating without being aware of eating.

· Having periods of time where you have difficulty remembering the details of what happened - running on autopilot.

· Reacting emotionally in certain ways - feeling like an emotion just "came out of nowhere".

· Daydreaming or thinking of other things when doing chores.

· Doing several things at once rather than focussing on one thing at a time.

· Distracting yourself with things like eating, alcohol, pornography, drugs, work.

If you do some or even most of these things at times, then you are probably a normal member of the human race.

Nooks and Crannies

I've been finding little places where I want to hang on to control...in life...in art, there always seems to be a mirror there.  Those "hanging on" places, I see them and then say, "Yep there it is, how interesting, now Let go."

Giving up control, it's ok, you can get it back later if you really need.  Giving up sacred cows, it's ok, they are a dime a dozen, you can always get another one.  (insert laughter)

I have been going through, "Life, Paint, Passion," bit by bit, a little every couple days, and I love what Stewart says about control.  When you are painting and not trying to control, there is more energy, you feel connected, you feel on fire, you can afford to risk taking a leap.  And in the end, it leads you to a bigger space, in art... in life too...

The more I think I've gotten good at letting go, the more I find the little nooks and crannies.  Oh, there's another one, and oh, there it goes again. We can choose to see control for the trixter it is. We can choose what we're willing to keep and carry around, and what we don't have to hold.

Vitality is the reward for letting go of control; a bigger space, a room of one's own.  And besides, the parts of the painting where I wasn't trying to control, they hold more delight.   I love the little bit of turquoise tucked in there.