Up for the Year

It’s time for New Year’s Resolutions!!

Or not.

I’ve never been one to jump on that bandwagon. My thinking was, why pick one day of the year to decide to do something (or quit something or lose something?  Why that one day rather than any other? Couldn't I accomplish that feat any other day of the year - and without all the hooplah?

What makes the day of January First so powerful that all promises to self will stick?

Poof! It’s January First and I will be very organized!        

Poof! It’s January First and I will lift great weights over and over and run miles and miles and lose 10 pounds and inches and inches!

Poof! It’s January First and I will get along with everyone (even if they’re idiots)!

Poof! It’s January First and I will achieve all the great things I’ve not been able to achieve up to now!
 
Seems to me the key to change resides within, rather than with a number in a square under the heading ‘January’.

A more helpful  tool, in my opinion, is Christine Kane’s Word for the Year.  Go on ahead and read what she’s got to say. It’s pretty heady stuff.

This is my 4^th year of choosing a guide word to move me through the next 12 months.  I can attest to the power and growth of starting a bright and shiny new year this way, having chosen Moxie last year.

Of all the fancy words that could have drifted across my brain pan and heralded change and excitement, challenge and delight, the word that came to me for the next 12 months is “up”.

No compassion, generosity, effortlessness, engaging, gratitude, abundance, growth, creativity, delight, presence, courage, confidence, releasing, trusting, expansion, exploration or adventure.

Up.

Up, as in heavenward? (Look up)  Increasing? (Pile up)  Finishing? (End up) Growing? (Up your game)

Up as in eyebrows lifting, mouth curling in a smile, chin higher?

I'll let you know. Looks like I've got something to learn.

How about you? How will you move into the next 12 months?

More Help for Santa

 

Greetings All -

For those of you who believed those pesky Mayans and didn’t do the shopping you should have because you thought the world was coming to an end, here’s another helpful holiday list for the artist in your life:

A drawer-full of just what you were looking for. 

A calendar full of dates for upcoming exhibit opportunities.

 

Determination to keep going.

 

Everything you need right at your fingertips

 

 An empty wall waiting just for you

 

Good, solid friendships

 An ego strong enough to keep you going, but not so strong that you go too far.

 

A pile of red dots

 

A sense of adventure

 

 

 

Pleasure in simple things

 

People who are on your side

 

 

Abundance

 

 

 

©2012 Patricia Scarborough.  My last painting of the year.  See you 2012, it's been good to know you.

 

Feel free to add to the list. Surely Santa can use the help.

Connect

Due to general internet problems I am unable to post my usual weekly blog.

You're smart though, and asking how I managed to get this far if I have no internet, right?  I'm sitting at the public library, and as I type there's a 9 year old looking over my shoulder, waiting his turn.

And to be honest, in the wake of the horror in Conneticut just a few days ago in which the lives of children and teachers were brought to an end in a way nightmares are made of, nothing I have to say seems very worthwhile.

Take the day off. Go tell someone you love that you do, in fact, love them. Pat someone on the shoulder.

Connect with a human being rather than the internet.

(Okay, kid. Your turn.)

Plumbing and Painting

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.       - James Goldsmith

We’ve had some major plumbing done recently. It involved digging giant holes in the yard with complicated machinery and finally a mound of dirt that they promise will settle.

The bill will be enough to raise our eyebrows, of that I have no doubt.

We’re a lot the same, plumbers and painters. We have expenses that others outside the business don’t stop to consider but which still have to be accounted for. We also have skills that others don’t have but wish they did. The better the skill the better the product, and the final price will often raise eyebrows.

Have you ever hired a cheap plumber? Bet you only made that mistake once. 

Handsome Husband and I will pay our plumber on time and sign the check with a flourish because he earned it. We want water, and we want it in the right place at the right time and the exact time we need it. Our plumber has earned his paycheck.

Into the Woods, 6 x 8 oil, $300, available at Burkholder Project, Lincoln, Ne.

 

Buy the fine art you love.

 

 

Coming Home, 11 x 14 oil, $540, available at Norfolk Arts Center, Norfolk, Ne.

 

Don't play cheap.


 

Howard County at Dusk, 6 x 8 oil, $250 available at MONA in Kearney, Ne.

 

Really gorgeous artwork is also available at Graham Gallery in Hastings, Ne., and Lux Art Center in Lincoln, Ne.

Buy the good stuff the first time. You'll never regret it.

 

 

 

Leaping and Landing

Leap and the net will appear. 

The image connected to this saying is of a lovely woman doing a graceful dive from an obviously high place, perhaps a skyscraper or cliff on the ocean front. She’s silhouetted against a clear blue sky, and made to look like a swan soaring into her future.  There is no tension in her body; her face looks upward with hope and delight. The whites of her eyeballs are covered by confident lids, probably with mascara perfectly applied.  Her expertly manicured hands are gracefully placed to help control her flight like ailerons on a sleek Lear jet. One can almost hear Rhapsody in Blue played as the soundtrack.  True to her promise, a net appears out of nowhere allowing her to land light as a feather. She steps confidently from the net in 3-inch heels . . .

Let’s take a step into reality, shall we?

Fact is, last time I did any soaring it involved swinging from the neighbor’s clothesline pole. Sure that was a long time ago, but I distinctly remember no net appearing to soften my landing. In fact, my landing involved a visit to the emergency room to repair my dislocated elbow. That’s stuff you just don’t forget.

Most of the time leaping, as in taking some kind of risk, is not pretty. There is no mystical net that appears and saves us from smashing our elbows into the ground.

In my art career I have leaped and soared effortlessly. Some days I fight headwinds that leave me feeling like I’m not making any progress at all. Landings have been interesting to say the least; graceful touch-downs and  more than a few thumps and bumps. Every day I hold on to my safe perch and every day I let go. Every day.

There are gaps between the leaping and the landing, and we get to make the rules about how we let go and how we land. Some days we let go effortlessly, some days it's all we can do to peel our fingers from the rail. There's no right or wrong, just the fact that we try. At least in letting go there are possibilities.

©2012 Patricia Scarborough Miletta View 6 x 8 oil Recently Purchased

Many thanks to the kind individual who added a Scarborough original to their collection. That act gives me a little more faith that when I leap I just might land solidly with both feet on the ground.