Do Not Complain

I have been so non-stop busy these past three days I never found the five minutes to post about gratitude! I am catching up now. I am being gently compassionate with myself about juggling so many things. The two back-to-back art festivals plus art show are now complete and I’ll have some time to breathe.

What are you grateful for today?

Have you been frustrated with yourself recently? Treat yourself as you might a beloved child. Remind yourself that we are all imperfect humans and we try the best we can.

I do try to be compassionate with myself with I don’t get everything done that I aim for. I know I have a number of to-do items that various people are eagerly waiting for. I am aiming to do better and allocate tasks to other people where they can lend a hand, so I’m not a logjam on tasks that involve others.

I am grateful today that Bob is such a wonderful help. He cooks delicious food for us, and he went to the Uxbridge gallery with me today to get everything reset from the art reception on Friday. I’m also grateful the kitties were calm last night so I got wonderful sleep!

Day 12 of our Gratitude project! Join us!

What are you grateful for today?
Today we brainstorm our vision statement with its priorities. Priorities are your life-long general aims. These would be things like:

* be healthy

* be serene

* be organized

* help others

* constantly learn

Priorities are phrased in the “I am now doing this” tense. Priorities are large, all-encompassing areas of life. Specific tasks like “be 130 pounds” come later in your goals. That would be in service of the priority of “be healthy”.

My priorities have been steady for many years now. I track them in an online thread and review them every six months or so. They are:

~ help others directly

~ help others help themselves

~ be healthy

~ be serene

~ find the lesson in every day

~ organize my world

~ SMILE

Today I am grateful that I have worked on time management processes for years, to learn to use my time efficiently. It’s served me very well as I’ve aimed to get many things done every day.

It’s Day Nine of our Gratitude project!

What are you grateful for today?

Do a mindful eating experience. Think about all the people who helped your item reach you, from start to end.

We live in an interconnected web of society! We all help each other.

LOL see this shows how mindfulness is important in our daily lives. I thought, well, I’m drinking herbal tea. I don’t know anything about where this tea comes from! This will be fun! And then I looked at my tea tag and it says:

Stash – orange spice black tea

AAAaaaaa I’m drinking one of Bob’s caffeine-full teas by accident! I’ll never get to sleep!!!!

I went to their website and all they say is: “We scour the earth to find the best quality ingredients for our teas!” – that’s incredibly unhelpful! Surely they could say something a little more informative than that?

Well, I suppose, mindfully, I am grateful for “people on the Earth” for growing my tea, and then transporting it to somewhere else on the Earth, maybe in a boat, or maybe on a train, to then get to my local store, where friendly store-people talk to Bob (because he does all the shopping) and he brings it home to me, where I accidentally drink it :).

Day six of our journey through gratitude!

Be grateful for your body each day. It’s the one and only vessel which holds “you” throughout your life. It does the best it can. Tend to it.

Do gentle head circles. Imagine a golden halo is floating over your head. Slowly trace it three times clockwise. Then trace it three times counter-clockwise.

What are you grateful for today?

Today I’m grateful for rain. I know some people are disappointed that it’s going to be rainy on Saturday, but it makes my life SO SO SO much easier. I’ll be running two separate tents at the Sutton Art Festival. There’s one for the Blackstone Valley Art Association and then one for the Sutton Writing Group.

I was planning to lug two sets of tables, two sets of chairs, two sets of tents, plus all the bins, prints, cards, books, and so on. I wasn’t sure how this would even fit into my car.

But now that it’s rainy, the festival will be in the local church. They will have all the tables and chairs set up for us. No tents needed. Life gets incredibly easy! I just bring the art, the origami, my cyanotypes, and some books. Voila!

If you’re local, come on out to visit the festival and support local artists!

Day 5 of our 30-day Uplifting Words challenge! Join us!

What are you grateful for today? Think about your mantra.

Then think of 3 people who inspire you. Let them know how much you appreciate them!

I’m grateful that I have wonderful friends in the BVAA and in my writing groups who have come together to lend a hand on Saturday. We have two different events going on on Saturday. There’s a fun art festival happening on Sutton Common. We also have our Uxbridge Gallery with pick-ups and drop-offs for a show. Everyone has come together to ensure both events go smoothly! Hurrah!

As for people who inspire me, it’s hard to narrow that down to just three. There are so many people in my life who inspire me in so many different ways. Every person has something to teach me.

Jane Nozzolillo is one person. She’s in her late 90s and is a writing powerhouse. She only began writing a few years ago and she’s already put out two children’s books, a children’s short story, ten adult short stories, and poetry. She has an incredible sense of wit. I love reading her work. She doesn’t let age slow her down – she just plows ahead.

My son James inspires me. He spends his free time in downtown Worcester helping people with nowhere else to turn learn how to talk with their landlords and get issues resolved. He actively invests himself in making their world a better place.

Dawn-Marie Loan Solais followed her dream to open an art gallery in Uxbridge. It is absolutely beautiful. She is doing everything she can to support local artists and to bring beauty to the world. She’s encountered challenges and she still plows ahead with a smile.

Day 4 of our 30-day Uplifting Words challenge!

What are you grateful for today? Consider your mantra. Check in with your board of directors.

And then it’s time to explore!

Search your favorite image areas. It could be Instagram, Twitter, Google, or whatever. Find art items which sing to you. They could be watercolor paintings, photography, digital art, anything at all. Store links to them so you can “visit” them regularly. Fill your virtual world with beauty!

Feel free to share links or posts below!

Today I’m grateful that I can work from home. It means the moment I woke up I pulled my laptop onto the bed and did my final read-through of my cozy witch mystery. I’m ready to put a first version live! Hurrah! I have a cable TV interview next Wednesday and I want to get a copy in-hand to showcase for that.

My mantra “Be the change you wish to see in the world” is normally on a bracelet I wear. I’ve managed to lose two now. Maybe the universe needed them for someone else. So I’ve ordered a third which will be here soon.

My board of directors is a fairly down-to-earth just-get-it-done group. They remind me that whatever challenges I face, others have it far worse. I just need to hunker down and get on with my to-do list!

Here’s an image I love – it’s at the Worcester Art Museum so I can visit it often. It’s by Kandinsky. I love how light and free and playful it is. Full of unexpected ideas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky

Day 3 of the 30 Days of Gratitude challenge!

First, post or write something you’re grateful for.

Think about your mantra. Then, today’s task!

Build a personal Board of Directors. Anyone at all can be on it. Real or virtual. Who would you choose?

Write down their names.

Then ask each one for guidance on a challenge you face. Listen to their responses.

Today I am grateful I am healthy and full of energy. I have so many things stacked up on my to-do list which need to get done. I’m grateful I can work hard all day long to make progress on them.

My mantra is “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. This is a distillation of a longer explanation given by Mahatma Gandhi.

His full text was:
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.”

My board of directors:

Haloke from my Wyoming series. She is strong, steady, compassionate, determined, and keeps at something until it is right.

Ariana from my Being Aware medieval book. She is deaf, but she surmounts the challenges and plows on with life. She watches over her gay younger brother and her uncle who drinks, all while striving to find justice for her murdered parents.

Ann Foster, my ancestor who got caught up during the Salem Witch Trials. When Ann’s daughter and granddaughter were accused of being witches, Ann sacrificed herself and said that she was the witch. She was put into jail, at the age of 75, and after a few months in those wretched conditions she died.

Day 2 of the 30 Days of Gratitude challenge! Come join us!

First, post something you’re grateful for today. That’s part of every day.

Then think up a mantra for yourself. An inspirational saying. Something that inspires you. Write it down somewhere. You can put it on your desk or in your purse or anywhere at all. Mine is “Be the change you wish to see in the world” :).

What is yours?

Today I am grateful that I can work from home in my pajamas, with my kitties lounging alongside me. All day long I do things which bring me joy. I can write about topics I care deeply for and share those with the world.