Huntington Gardens
November 23, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

Huntington Gardens
November 23, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

As you move forward in your life it is very natural to reflect upon the things you have acquired, the goals you have achieved, the people you have met. It is also very natural to feel dire detriment when any of these things are lost or your goals have not been achieved or these people have abandoned you. However, as you reflect upon your life, you remember very well that you were quite happy say, a year ago, without these things or people. It’s all really a matter of perspective.

Reflecting upon this past year, many things, goals, and people have come my way. I worked hard to make that all happen. I held onto things, I lost things. I accomplished goals, I changed my goals. I met people, I lost people.

I am very hard on myself. I am my own worst critic. I like to keep up with myself and excel above myself. But that makes taking photos and making art difficult for myself. So, in the past few months, I’ve been reflecting and looking at my own reflexion. I decided to turn it all off. The noise. The radio. The social media. The Facebook. The Twitter. Not a 100% but 90% isn’t bad. My own personal filter. I stopped caring about what other social personalities were doing. I stopped caring that I am supposed to get the winning photo. I stopped caring that I wanted to keep up with everyone else. Because I didn’t. I was only trying to keep up with myself.

I love the inspiration of art and music. The music. I fell into the music. The reverie and resonance when silence and sound meet upon chance. The art. I was always in love with the art. When creation is left behind it becomes a legacy after we are gone.

And some of those people understood that very essence about me and let me be who I am. These are my friends, they are my people.

Each one of them has inspired me…. Healing other people with her jewelry. Writing teen novels with her imagination and experience. Touring in the Middle East playing for our troops.

Inspiring.

Being inspired, I am able to run down mountains, I am able to listen to silence, I am able to touch guitar strings, I am able to go through another rigorous kung fu program, and most of all, I am able to take another photo. And being inspired, I am able to take my time, I am able to just show up. And when I look at the people around me, the things I’ve surrounded myself with, the goals I decided to achieve, I see a reflexion of me. A desire, not for a want of anything new outside but for a need of something old inside, so I can evolve into something/someone beyond all of Heaven and Earth.

Be happy with what you already have. You may build upon yourself with experiences with people, things, and goals. But a bee and all of nature has all it will ever need, and have been quite content with that for centuries.

Commissioned by Micki Hassemer

Red orange leaves against a January sky!

I hear a Nick Rosen song accompanying this…