Hold Your Horses!

(Watercolor study of horse at rodeo in Lincoln, NE)

Has anyone ever told you to "Hold your horses!"?  That is a phrase that urges you to slow down, be careful, you are going too fast before thinking about an action.  The command to "Hold your horses!"  begs a person to consider their course of action further before diving off the deep end of a decision.

(Charles Russell sculpure-Joselyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE)

Perhaps that describes where you are currently at...barreling straight ahead with an idea or about to make a major decision that will greatly impact all areas of your life.  Perhaps friends or family have urged caution.  Have you considered all the angles?  Are you asking for good council from a variety of solid, wise friends or fellow workers?  

("Sioux Warrior" , bronze, artist Matthew Placzek, Joselyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE)

When you are teeming full of enthusiasm and energy about an idea or decision, hold your horses!  The momentum that builds is necessary to undertake mighty endeavors, but before that final decisive moment when you can't reverse the consequences, take a deep breath and step back.  Pause, evaluate, pray for wisdom, and even give it some more time to incubate or percolate.  Then when you have done all that, you can move ahead with confidence.  

(Watercolor horse study)

King Solomon, considered the wisest man who ever lived and who had his share of 4,000 stables and 12,000 horsemen, said this about decision-making:  "Make plans by seeking advice....a man's wisdom gives him patience...listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise." (from Proverbs)  Malcolm Gladwell has this savvy input about the decision process, too:  "Truly successful decision-making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking."

("All About Teamwork", Charcoal/graphite, 25.5" x 33")

So if you are on the brink of a decision, pull up on the reins a moment, think carefully and then proceed thoughtfully.  You won't regret it!  Then take heart and don't look back!

Live bravely and beautifully!

The Power of Small

(Small watercolor sketch of my grandson Caleb)

While painting this little sketch of my grandson feeding his pony, my mind started hiking down a thinking path about the small things in life.  How powerful they are!  Little children and creatures can melt our hearts in one fell swoop.  Small things can be the catalyst for some great ventures in life.  

We are now several weeks into the 2016 New Year which reminds me about all the New Year's resolutions that have, for many, now bitten the dust.  Great resolve and good starts kicked off many a plan for change or growth in some area of life.  So how are we doing?  

May I encourage you in your efforts to stay in the race no matter how wobbly good intentions may have gotten by now?  One critical factor to successful follow-through is contained in the word small.  Bite-size.  Incremental.  Moments.  So often our goals start off looking like Mt. Everest in scale and practicality suffers.  We sputter to a standstill.  So try this advise from Proverbs 21:5..."Little by little the diligent make it happen."  This small statement has strengthened me to persevere in the chase for many projects or goals.

A couple powerful stories from history come to mind about the effect of small with big results.  Many of us are familiar with the David and Goliath encounter.  A dangerous but obvious case of the power of small to overcome a large evil threat.  No state of the art military equipment there.  Just a small young man, 5 small creek stones, a slingshot, and a practiced skill combined with a big faith in the Creator God.

Another event highlighting the small/big ratio is found in John 6:9 dealing with Jesus' miraculous feeding of the 5,000 plus crowd.  Fast food joints were still several millennia away.  The huge crowd was languishing with hunger in the rural landscape of the Sea of Galilee.  In scoping out any available resources to meet this need, the disciple Andrew had found one small boy with his very small lunch of five loaves and two fish.  His response to Jesus was typical..."What good is THAT with this huge crowd?"  But these resources placed in Christ's hands were enabled to feed the 5,000 plus crowd and come up with twelve baskets of leftovers!  Imagine that!!  Small resources with an enormously huge impact!!

Another engaging story about the power of small comes from Aesop's Fables.  This one continuously works on me to keep at it.  I call it The Slow and Steady Factor.  Remember the tortoise and the hare in the race and eventually the winner was the tortoise?  Strong and helpful truth right there!  A number of years ago my son Jacob drew a cartoon for me that I have treasured and keep in my art studio as a reminder of The Slow and Steady Factor:

I love how he portrayed the turtle decked out in sunglasses, whistling while he crawled, and dragging the unwise rabbit along as well. 

Over the years I have collected replicas of the turtle as a reminder of the truth that William Dunning expressed..."Steady work is far more productive than superhuman spurts."  Here's the hard-shelled reminders from my studio shelf:

To wind up this topic, I'll leave you with a few choice quotes to encourage you to keep in the chase with your projects and goals this year:

"True life is lived when tiny changes occur."

                                                                  ---Leo Tolstoy.

"...action has magic, grace and power in it."

                                                                  ---Goethe.

"Those heights by great men, won and kept,

Were not achieved by sudden flight.

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night."

                      ---Henry W. Longfellow.

"Good and evil both increase at compound interest.

That is why the little decisions you and I make every day

are of such infinite importance.

The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which,

a few months later,

you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of."

                                                                  ---C. S. Lewis.

                                                                      (emphasis in bold print is mine)

Here's a sneak peak at what is new on my easel in my slow and steady endeavors:

Live bravely and beautifully!

Whoops...Missed the Joy!

(Quick watercolor sketch of this week's sunrise)

This week I finished reading a book that is listed on contemporary classics reading lists. The author won the Pulitzer Prize for this particular novel.  She portrayed the whole cycle of life and universal story of the destiny of man.  Her writing skills fully developed the traits of all her characters and understanding of the times and country in which the story took place. She was authentic in that she wrote from what she truly knew.  

But as I inched towards the end of the narrative, something always seemed to elude my grasp.  And the very last sentence certainly nailed the lid on the coffin for me!  As I closed the book and turned out the light, I felt an emptiness and an unsatisfied yearning from having invested an amount of time in something that didn't offer redemptive returns.

Yes, the book dealt with the grand themes of life, but I felt it did so without offering much in the way of wisdom gained or hope fulfilled on the part of the major character.  You kept hoping from one major incident to another that the protagonist would be developing a deeper understanding for life and for what gives it meaning and richness.  But I had a sense that he never "got it".  End of story. Hmmm.

It's like leaving out the final details and highlights in a painting that make it really sing.  It's like composing a symphony and leaving out the final movement bringing back the major themes ramped up and fully developed in a grand way to culmination.  I love the arts and I realize that to be true to life, art often grapples with what is ugly or terribly wrong and painful.  But somewhere in the context of that, art should offer a glimpse towards growth and understanding and a deeper richness of being.  It should offer an open window for the soul to catch sight of what is the true and good and beautiful in life.  That is the place where joy can be experienced.

Joy doesn't depend on circumstances and most often develops out of sorrow and overcoming wrong and adversity.  But it is something that we can't live without.  I am addicted to joy and disappointed when that is not a part of the equation.  As C.S. Lewis wrote in his autobiography, Surprised By Joy, "anyone who has experienced it will want it again....I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world."   Sherwood Wirt writes that "Joy is not a sentimental word.  It has a clean tang and bite to it, the exhilaration of mountain air.  It blows away the dustiness of our days with a fresh breeze, and makes life more carefree."   The great Creator God has designed us with a capacity for joy.  He desires that we be not only filled with joy, but overflowing with it.  That is a way I want to live!

I wanted to share this video of a flash mob performing Beethoven's Ode to Joy from his 9th symphony.  What I want to highlight is the joy expressed not only by the performers but also by the crowds gathered...from the adults on down to young children.  Joy has such universal appeal!  Enjoy:  

                                                                   

Well, as the Good Book says, "of the making of books, there is no end", and so I'm off to the next classic.  And I'll be looking for elements of joy in it as the pages turn.  

Live bravely and beautifully!  

Walk Slowly and Bow Often

(Pen & ink/colored pencil study)

Where would we be in our world without the beauty and work of trees?  Practically they help tremendously in providing us with oxygen for clean air, food for wildlife and humans alike, shade, soil rentention, fuel, lumber and so much more.  Aesthetically trees are majestic, stately, and sculptural, bringing beauty to our lives.  The colors of autumn inspire many an artists' palette.  I love looking at all kinds of trees with their distinguishing characteristics of bark, branching patterns, and leaf shapes.  It increases my awe of the great Creator!

(Study in oil)

Pulitzer prize-winning poet Mary Oliver expressed it well in a poem from her book, Thirst:

When I Am Among the Trees

When I am among the trees, 

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have a goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, "Stay awhile."

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, "It's simple," they say,

"and you too have come

into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled

with light, and to shine."

---Mary Oliver.

Trees not only inspire artists and poets, but composers as well.  John Sebelious wrote his composition "The Spruce" for a tableau of artwork in the 1800's.  Enjoy this rendition by a young 9 year old boy and imagine you are walking among some fragrant and grand Colorado Spruce:

                                      

This week I encourage you to walk slowly and bow often, taking time to notice the trees and beauty of the world around you.

Live bravely and beautifully!