Those Moments Add Up!

(Acrylic study of an elk)

"There's just not enough time!"  Is that a statement that you may have uttered regarding some project you have desired to accomplish?  We all have ideas on our bucket lists that we'd like to achieve at some point in our lives, but so much of daily life and the tyranny of the urgent seems to keep kicking those ideas down the road into the future.  

May I share with you a powerful little quote by Erwin McManus that acts as a regular encouragement in the creative fight for me?  Here it is:

"Life is the total sum of what you do with the moments given you."

Time and again those words have acted as a goad to my decision making when it comes to getting art work created.  For some number of years I was working full-time in schools in Colorado, so time for art creation was minimal.  But I took as a goal to get in 20 hours a week in my studio working and studying on art.  I drew up little circles and divided them into 4 segments.  Each segment was 15 minutes of work, making a circle equal one hour.  Here's a sample:

These acted as time sheets for me.  By them I could assess my use of time and be encouraged by seeing how much could be accomplished by redeeming 15 minutes here and there in my week.  I saw how that adds up!  Now I use a notebook to record the amount of time spent in different aspects of my art endeavors.  Here's a sample of that:  

Art is a solitary endeavor normally.  Whatever is going to be created is up to me.  I must put in the time and engage in the creative fight if anything worthwhile is going to result.  So I have found that keeping a record of my creative time use keeps me accountable.  The artist Chuck Close made a statement about artists and their work habits that really resonates with me:

"True inspiration is for amateurs.  The rest of us just show up and get to work."

I also find a grip on creative time from what Annie Dillard has written in The Writing Life:

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.  What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.  A schedule defends from chaos and whim.  It is a net for catching days."

So here's one of the current creative endeavors I've been doing in the time I can carve out of my work week:  

This is a 24" x 36" woodburning I'm doing of a moose.  It all happens incrementally, like that saying:  "The wheels of progress grind slowly, but they grind!"

Also, the wisest man ever, King Solomon wrote this about time usage in Proverbs 10:4:  

"Little by little the diligent make it happen."

So be encouraged and take action on that creative desire, even if it is a moment here and there at a time!

Live bravely and beautifully! 

Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Calm

Sunday afternoon found me enjoying a calm, crisp, sunny autumn day watching the incoming tide splash against the shoreline.  The beach was fairly quiet except for a few clam diggers here and there.  I enjoyed drawing in my nature journal and beholding the idyllic scenery.  

At the same time, thousands of miles away, Hurricane Matthew was battering the Caribbean and inflicting tremendous devastation.  Over near South Korea a typhoon was wreaking havoc.  What a paradox weather can be....sunny and pleasant or terrifying and dangerous! Some may wonder if God is really in control of the weather, and if so, why does He allow the terrible suffering?  How can He be a good God with a track record like that?  

Those are serious questions to ponder.  A man named Job also encountered serious damage from severe weather.  A major storm took out his oldest son's home, collapsing it on all sides and killing all ten of Job's children inside.  Job went on to suffer the loss of all he owned and endured great physical misery.  He, devout man that he was, ventured to ask God why there was evil in the world.  In a very interesting dialogue, God responded to Job's questions.  You can read about it in the book of Job in the Bible.  God made it clear to Job that He was in control of nature and that His ultimate purposes could be trusted. 

We live in a fallen world that has such "natural disasters" like earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes.  These are the results of the curse operating in nature.  The pain and sorrow experienced demonstrate the imperfect world we inhabit.  But even in this imperfect world, God demonstrates His involvement.  David wrote in Psalm 148:8 that "fire and hail, snow and clouds, wind and weather obey Him."  Job modeled the best response to adversity.  He didn't blame God for it.  Instead he chose to trust God's goodness even though at the time he didn't understand the "Why?".   Job responded, "The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away.  Praise the name of the Lord!"  Later in the dialogue after God had asked Job a series of questions, Job acknowledged that he was in way over his head in understanding the mighty purposes of God in his life.  

Our hearts go out to those suffering from the devastating storms and our prayers are for them and those engaged in helping to bring relief.  Their loss and sorrow is enormous and incomprehensible!

Live bravely and beautifully!

Going Deep

Sketch of Mt. Shuksan in ink/colored pencil

Substance and depth are the meat and potatoes in life.  Contrast that with shallow, trending, superficial, and empty.  Life is too short to be taken up with whatever is light and frivolous. This doesn't negate joyfulness, rather even joy is to be pursued seriously, too!  Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman, wrote:  "Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think."  

(North Cascades)

Along those lines, Sunday I was challenged by something I read in our church bulletin about being a deep person:

"Beholding glory begs for lingering.

The modern, fast-paced world will tempt you to rush and skim.  This kind of life will make you shallow.  The world does not need more widely read, shallow people.  It needs deep people...

I mean you have seen glory---the glory of God in his Word.  You have pondered it and felt its relation to all the parts of your life.  You have been steadied and satisfied by it.

You have come home.  You are not frantic anymore.  You are at peace in the presence of God.  This is what I mean by deep.  This is what the world needs."

                                                                                  ---John Piper

                                                                                  The Pleasures of God

(Mt. Shuksan - North Cascades)

I also like the injunction in this statement by F. La Gard Smith for us to go beyond shallowness to the real treasure of true life:

"God says to us, "Dig deep.  True life is not just what you see around you, but a treasure I have hidden beneath the surface.  Dig it up and bring it into your world. You can use it to build, to beautify, to glorify.'"

Live bravely and beautifully!

Leaving It Behind

Watercolor/pen study

Welcome to fall, everyone!  Today is the official autumnal equinox for the Northern Hemisphere of the world....precisely at 10:21 a.m. (EDT). Equi means equal in Latin and nox means night.   Therefore the meaning for equinox is that there is supposedly an equal amount of day and night as the sun crosses the equator in earth's annual orbit around the sun.  We have started noticing that the nights are getting cooler, the leaves are changing colors and beginning to fall from the trees.  Bring on college football, pumpkin spice, sweaters and cozy evenings!

The great English poet William Wordsworth captured this seasonal transition very descriptively in his poem September, 1815:

While not a leaf seems faded; while the fields,

With ripening harvest prodigally fair,

In brightest sunshine bask; this nipping air,

Sent from some distant clime where Winter wields

His icy scimitar, a foretaste yields

Of bitter change, and bids the flowers beware;

And whispers to the silent birds, "Prepare...

(Woods of Northwest Arkansas)

The seasonal changes bring variety to the year.  Each has it's particular gifts.  For some of us it is hard to say goodbye to summer.  For others they are glad for relief from summer's heat.  Whether we like it or not, change is on the way!  On that note, here's a reminder about some One who never changes!  Psalm 102:25-27 writes about God's immutability or unchanging character:

Long ago You laid the foundation of the earth

and made the heavens with Your hands.

They will perish, but You remain forever;

they will wear out like old clothing.

You will change them like a garment

and discard them.

But You are always the same;

You will live forever.

                                     He is trustworthy and dependable forever!    

Live bravely and beautifully!

Some Shape of Beauty

Woodburned sketch

9" x 12"

Catching sight of a deer passing through an opening in the woods is a magical moment.

They are quiet and elusive, slipping out of view just when you get your eyes focused on them.

John Keats, in his poem "A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever", wrote that "yes, in spite of all, Some shape of beauty moves away the pall From our dark spirits....an endless fountain of immortal drink, pouring unto us from the heaven's brink."  I find that being out in nature and observing the wild life within it, seeing some shape of beauty there does wonders for my soul.

I am also reminded by the great Psalmist, King David, to have a heart that thirsts for God like the deer longing for streams of water when it is parched from being chased in the hunt. Nothing quenches life's thirsts like drinking from the fount of living water, which is what Jesus Christ offers.  

Live bravely and beautifully!

Stand and Stare

(8" x 10" oil study of Loveland, Colorado ranch)

This coming weekend finds us taking time off to celebrate the Labor Day Holiday.  Webster's defines labor as the expenditure of physical or mental effort, especially when difficult or compulsory.  So we take a break from that this weekend to cease from labor and to honor the sanctity of good, honest work.  To stimulate that transition, let's look at a poem about leisure.  Leisure is the freedom from work or duties.  Here is a good way to use your leisure this weekend...

Leisure

What is this life, if full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this, if full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.  

---William Henry Davies

Welsh Poet

Winter Water

16" x 20"

Acrylic

"As one sits here in summertime and listens to the cuckoo

and all the other bird songs,

the crackling and buzzing of insects,

as one gazes at the shining colors of flowers,

doth one become dumbstruck

before the Kingdom of the Creator."

                                                                   ---Carl Linnaeus

                                                                       Swedish botanist, zoologist

                                                                       Father of Taxonomy

Live bravely and beautifully!

Too Much/Not Enough

Pastel study looking towards Mt. Baker from Anacortes, WA

9" x 12"

"Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink" wrote Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his famous poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".  That pretty much sums up the problem with water this summer.  The state of Louisiana is suffering from terribly destructive flooding.  A place in eastern Nebraska got dumped on with 8 inches of rain last night.  Out here in the Pacific Northwest, the forests and pastures are parched from weeks and weeks of no rain.  We are wired for Paradise, wanting and needing what is perfect in every area of our lives.  Anything more or less is bound to make us irritable and discontent.  We long for what was lost in Eden.  We yearn for a redeemed world where all is beautiful, good, and safe.  C. S. Lewis wrote about this yearning when he said, "We want something else which can hardly be put into words---to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it."  Something better is coming!  For those who are looking forward to the day when God restores in an even greater way what was lost in Eden, the greatest adventure lies ahead!

High Adventure

As I have seen a child,

Round-eyed and innocent,

Leaving his treasured playthings piled

Where new adventure overtook,

Climb up a little staired ascent,

Holding in fear his parent's hand,

And, trepidant with fresh alarms

Yet gathering courage from each trustful look,

With utter confidence in a last command,

Fling himself laughing into his father's arms---

So I, another child,

Holding my Father's hand,

Now from my busy arts beguiled

By what He promises beyond,

Forgetting all that I have planned, 

And pressing on with faith's sure sight

O'er rock and ridge, through mists and storms,

With confidence that swallows up despond,

From the last crag of life's most glorious height

Cast me exultant into my Father's arms.

---A.W. Spalding

Live bravely and beautifully!