Achieve Great

Some are born great, some achieve great, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em  - Shakespeare

This is one of my all time favorite quotes. I think of this quote and think of people in my life.  People that have touched me by their actions, their truth, their ability to stay focused, in the process.  People that walk their talk. 

Greatness does not have to be a huge or great act to have significance in the life of another.  It can be simply being consistent.

Everyday.  People have the opportunity everyday to achieve greatness. I think it has to do with kindness on that level.  Helping someone out, smiling, letting someone in on the freeway, opening a door, holding a door, letting someone go first.

Greatness can also have to do with being willing to make sacrifices for the better good.

Civil rights protestors had greatness thrust upon them.  Anyone willing to stand up for, put themself in the line of danger for something they believe in has greatness thrust upon them.

I believe babies are born great.  There is infinite possibility there.  We are each born with a capacity to grow, learn and achieve great. It’s what we do with it when we become cognizant of being adults that frames our life.

I have made bad choices, muddled unclear choices and good choices. We all have.  Yet as humans, we have the capacity to shift, change our thinking if you will.  About anything.

Love, love, love
acrylic on wood
4/2011

Greatness. To achieve greatness.  It can affect the whole world, meaning our planet or our small world the one we revolve around in with our friends, family and coworkers.

People that I know that do things to help other people less for fortunate – like collecting diapers to help those less fortunate, volunteering to feed homeless people.  these are acts of kindness, but they are also acts of greatness.

While many think this Shakespeare quote is more in line with thinking of leadership and achievers, I am breaking it down to a more day to day basis of how in this day and time, individuals can make a choice about their behavior in the world. Thus be great by example.

109 days: An Update on some Change

"There is no such thing as a small miracle. A gym is a place of miracles. People do things they once thought impossible--lifting heavier, squeezing out one more rep, finding discipline and willpower they didn't know they had. They're amazed at how good they feel and look, and they carry their new power into the world. This is the miracle I wanted to give to the world."

-   Joe Wieder, excerpt from Brothers of Iron

Today is 109 days of clean eating.  I almost don’t know what dirty eating is anymore.  I am not tempted by cookies, donuts, cupcakes or fried chicken.  Gummy bears no longer hold me hostage, potato chips don't call my name.  I can pass on all that stuff.

Probably because I get up at 6 in the morning and eat some fruit and feel good. 

Finally, I feel like I have accomplished something. A huge something.  I have stuck to the plan for almost 120 days.

My goal to go for 120 days - then evaluate.

And finally, my body is beginning to feel wonderful to me again. I know from how hard I push myself in the gym that I am being successful, but finally I am internalizing the message. 

The jeans fit, but they're not loose (my goal) and everything else is finally getting more comfy and loose.  I am still on my journey to deal with this conundrum of how to be healthy, finding the right amount of exercise and eating right, and can I reintegrate some dessert type treats in to my routine and not go overboard.

I like to call the gym the playground and the machines and weights the toys (for grown-ups).  It makes me happy to be there.  I like challenging myself to build my strength, endurance and confidence in doing so.

Recently I picked up some 15 pound dumbbells and the first words out of my mouth were, “they’re too heavy”, but I kept doing the exercise.

The harder the exercise is, the more I sweat, the happier I am.  Because it has a finite time span in my day and for those few minutes, I am completely absorbed in my task: be it walk outs, burpies, squats or ab work. And I never give up.

The Kiss
acyrlic on panel board
5/2011
still in progress- working out the details

So that translates into other areas of my life. And things shift and change and move about with more ease as I make room for more ease in my life.

My art work has changed to include another person.  That is a new development for me.  One that I am still pondering and reflecting on. 

Change. Movement. Growth. Life. Being. Strength. Power. Love. Peace. Discipline. Joy. Mindfulness. Grace. Clarity.

Relationship.Communication.Happiness.




Addendum:  
This week I was tempted by food.  Late one nite, having worked out hard not eaten since lunch and out past my bedtime: someone tempted me with a protein shake.  Did I want one.  Of course I said yes. I was thirsty, I had not cheated all this time, this was a logical option for having not eaten.  Sadly or happily, I did not get the shake, I was told that it was too much sugar and too late for me to have it.  I did try to cheat.  I was asked what my favorite chocolate was and thought a box(chocolate covered peanuts) was coming my way ---it hasn't.  So it's not like I don't have little temptations around me.  But I am being kept  clean, clean, clean.

Sometimes - we need a reminder

Pretty women wonder where

My secret lies.

I’m not cute or built to suit a

Fashion models size

But when I start to tell them,

They think I’m telling lies.

I say,

It’s in the reach of my arms

The span of my hips,

The stride of my step,

The curl of my lips.

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

From “Phenomenal Woman”

by Maya Angelou

Sometimes in the shuffle of the day we forget that we are all magnificent wonderful human beings on this planet having a very human experience.  Sometimes we are overly self conscious of our short comings or areas of development as I like to call them now. 

This poem reminds me to treasure who I am and what I do and can do in the world.  It reminds me that we are all beautiful and beauty is within more than with out. 

Sometimes all we need is a reminder of our beauty. A kind word, gesture or touch. Sometimes, many times, it becomes a reminder to stay true to oneself, trust the process and be present keep us all grounded here on planet earth.

My personal world has been shattered by change and it is beautiful.  I am learning to trust my intution and instincts.  It reminds me to be grateful and loving to everyone who crosses my path.

The Kiss
acrylic on canvas panel
4/2011
(in a series inspired by Rodin)
4/2011

Honoring Varnette Honeywood

Dixie Peach
Varnette Honeywood

I learned about Varnette Honeywood many years ago when I worked as a docent at the California African American Museum.  She was an African American artist who depicted scenes of everyday living.  She had a masters from USC and taught art to low income students.  One of my favorites of her work is of girls getting their hair pressed (does anyone still do that?).  One of the things that I loved and enjoyed about her work was the different shades of African American peoples.  From the milky light skinned red haired peoples to the deep dark brown peoples with black hair and everyone in the middle – people described as red, honey, chocolate, all represented in her work.  Her work was colorful, light and deep at the same time.  It reminds me of warm summers in Sacramento at my grand parents house, surrounded by relatives and neighbors.  Warm, friendly, homey – even a little country.

I became aware she passed a few days ago when I went internet searching for an anthology of her work.  Hoping by now a book had been published of all her work.  Instead, I learned something else.  And I was upset, even though I didn’t personally know her.  I felt a kinship with her.  I felt like she spoke to me personally with her art.

I honor Varnette Honeywood in the circle of my family.

She did some great work.  I hope she one days receives the world recognition she deserves.

African Women
arcylic on canvas
collection of Houston and Kinshasha Conwill
1980

1993

Poetry - virtue, intoxication, life

No Images

She does not know

Her beauty,

She thinks her brown body

Has no glory.

If she could dance

Naked,

Under palm trees

And see her image in the river

She would know.

But there are no palm trees

On the street,

And dish water gives back no images.

     Waring cuney (1906-1976)

Poetry, sweet poetry, it speaks to my soul as colors being added on a canvas,  shapes of clay being moulded,  words forming ideas and imagery.  I love poetry, this one in particular is from a book called Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate (Looking at the Harlem Renaissance through Poems) by Nikki Giovanni. 

I like the title and was thus drawn to the book.  It is filled with

poems by some of the greatest African-American poets: Countee Cullen,  Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes,  Claude McKay and many more.  The poets speak of challenges in being of color in this country, the pain, the glory, the humanness of being alive.  The Harlem Renaissance excites me, all of that great writing and art that came out of that period of time.  I would of loved to have lived then. 

What attracts me to poetry is it’s openess to any style or form (haiku’s, stanzas, pentameter, rhyme, rhythm).  There is no wrong way to express an idea. I love spoken word.

Of course making the idea clear is important.  Like any craft it can be worked and reworked to create imagery, symbolism and metaphor that one feels with the heart, sees imaginatively, smells intensely and hears magnificently.  Poetry is like music to me, each word has a meaning and intention and it can make one’s spirit soar to heights of happiness or depths of human despair.  With poetry you know if you like it, the words resonates with you by how you feel about it. 

Baudelaire said it succinctly – Be intoxicated with life – see it in the everyday moments, a beauty, a love, a joy.

Charles Baudelaire

Enivrez-vous (Paris Spleen, 1864)



Il faut être toujours ivre. Tout est là: c'est l'unique question. Pour ne pas sentir l'horrible fardeau du Temps qui brise vos épaules et vous penche vers la terre, il faut vous enivrer sans trêve. 
   Mais de quoi? De vin, de poésie ou de vertu, à votre guise. Mais enivrez-vous. 
   Et si quelquefois, sur les marches d'un palais, sur l'herbe verte d'un fossé, dans la solitude morne de votre chambre, vous vous réveillez, l'ivresse déjà diminuée ou disparue, demandez au vent, à la vague, à l'étoile, à l'oiseau, à l'horloge, à tout ce qui fuit, à tout ce qui gémit, à tout ce qui roule, à tout ce qui chante, à tout ce qui parle, demandez quelle heure il est et le vent, la vague, l'étoile, l'oiseau, l'horloge, vous répondront: "Il est l'heure de s'enivrer! Pour n'être pas les esclaves martyrisés du Temps, enivrez-vous; enivrez-vous sans cesse! De vin, de poésie ou de vertu, à votre guise."

Arthur Symons (1865-1945) translation, as quoted by Eugene O’Neill in Long Day’s Journey into Night:

Be always drunken. Nothing else matters: that is the only question. If you would not feel the horrible burden of Time weighing on your shoulders and crushing you to the earth, be drunken continually.
            Drunken with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you will. But be drunken.
            And if sometimes, on the stairs of a palace, or on the green side of a ditch, or in the dreary solitude of your own room, you should awaken and the drunkenness be half or wholly slipped away from you, ask of the wind, or of the wave, or of the star, or of the bird, or of the clock, of whatever flies, or sighs, or rocks, or sings, or speaks, ask what hour it is; and the wind, wave, star, bird, clock, will answer you: "It is the hour to be drunken! Be drunken, if you would not be martyred slaves of Time; be drunken continually! With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you will.”

The Kiss
inspired by Rodin
mixed media on canvas panel
4/2011

Out of the Comfort Zone - A Colorful Idea

Sunny warm skies
actually cold clear skies,
I am projecting for the summer
February 2011
Palo Alto

It’s hard to believe summer is upon us, warm days and nights.

Summer fruits, cookouts,warm balmy evenings, strolls along the beach.  And of course having that perfect little black dress to wear.  I have been in a quandary about my little black dress status.  All the ones I have now have a hole or are worn.

I started looking around, checking all my usual shopping places for something to catch my eye.  At the same time realizing that I have a plethora of colorful summer dresses that haven’t really had their fair share of wear.  And I began to ponder why do I have all these beautifully colored dresses if I have no intention of wearing them. 

Black has been my uniform forever.  Originally it was a black skirt and white blouse, colored tights, black flats, black coat and pearls.  Forever.  My go to since my twenties.  Same for evening the black dress and a medium black heel, pearls.

 I am comfortable in black.  Black and white, black and khaki, black with a splash of pink or green.  It works for me.

The black is like camaflauge.  It hides all the imperfections, it blends in.   Wearing black is a no brainer, keeps it simple not to mention the slimming effects.

But lately, actually since last summer, I don’t want to blend in, I want to immerse myself in bright oranges and fluorescent pink sand voluptuous reds.  Warm colors, warm colors like tropical sunsets and sunrises.  Warm colors that remind me of foods I like:  juicy sweet mangos, papaya, succulent peaches, plump red cherries and luscious raspberries: don’t know why.  I am just being drawn to those colors.

But, I am afraid to step out of my uniform, my comfort zone.

I am going to give myself a challenge.  No new black summer dress, no wearing black this summer.  It isn’t summer yet, but I am going to try.  Of course this new rule will not apply to the gym attire.

Papillon
recycled cans, buttons, acrylic on wood

Artful Inspirations

I came across a magazine about blogging, called Artful Blogging.  I had to buy it.  The words alone made me salivate.  The images are sublimely amazing.  Here are the titles to the sections, also enough to stir anyone out of lethargy.

Words that inspire:

Defining my creative self

No expectations

Finding where I fit in

New beginnings & formed bonds

Opening my eyes & fearing less

Where inspiration lives

Enjoying my cheerful tiny spot in a grand universe

Allowing my creative spirit to soar

Documenting, sharing & words of encouragement

Art challenges galore

Where to begin

Finding my style

Ideas with which to begin the journey, ideas to open the heart, the mind, the spirt, ideas to inspire ephiphanies,

and movement.

It can be scary to open up, it can be scary to take a risk, it can be scary to make changes.  It is the one thing that is certain in this world of ours, things change.  It's easier to go with the flow, rather than fight it.  I used to fight it.  Now I surrender with as much grace as I can.

Meditating Mama
acrylic on wood