I paint because I feel better when I paint.

Painting is my form of meditation.

Mediation clears the mind so we can hear our heart.

We live in a world seemingly growing and shrinking at the same time. It’s the “Big Bang” ad infinitum as our knowledge base grows and our time space continuum seems to shrink.

We feel disconnected by distance as our families grow and move (migrate) from one job or state to another.

We feel marginally connected when we see family, friends, and acquaintances on Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat, and “flavor-of-the-month” social media platform.

Painting, the simple act of putting brush marks on paper brings our world back into focus. Even just 15 minutes a day helps!

Time spent feeling truly, deeply connected to our selves (e.g. painting, meditation, yoga), is calming and healing. It moves us out of our heads and into our hearts.

We’ve had a long love affair with our head (brain). I’m not sure when it began, perhaps at the dawn of the industrial age?

I don’t know about you, but when I listen exclusively to my head,
I get in trouble.

Don’t get me wrong, our brains are great, they just don't tell the whole story. Our brains (and our computers) operate on logic.

Logic is only one leg upon which we stand. We do best when using our head, our heart, and our “gut” (intuition).

I go to yoga class once a week to remind myself of how good it feels to take care of my body in this way — and to be flexible.

Once upon a time I did yoga daily — on my own!

I don’t do that any more. Maybe my world (my head) is too full of other things that “must be done” first.

I go to a yoga class because I feel better when I go, I feel better when I’m there, and I feel better for days afterwards.

Sometimes life feels hard. Anything that can ease our angst and doesn’t cause harm to others is valuable.

Painting, like yoga and meditation, quiets the mind, opens the heart, and provides us with the opportunity to hear our intuition.

The head, the heart, and our intuition are the three legs upon which to stand and from which to choose how we live our lives.

We must be able to “hear” from each of these legs if we want a stable base upon which to stand.

One leg alone or two legs won’t do.
It takes three to provide stability.

Paint to come alive, to relax, to clear your mind, to open your eyes, to see more of the world around you, to unwind, to enjoy more of life, to refresh your spirit, to give you a stable footing in the world, to round out your life, to have FUN.

Simply Paint.

Before you cross the street”

That was the jingle I learned when I was growing up.

Today I use "Stop, Look, and Listen" as my intention for every day of my life.

Today it translates to:
Be Present, Be Aware,
and Be Open.

Being Open means open to receiving guidance in whatever forms it comes.

Sometimes it’s a whisper, a word that pops into your head.

Sometimes it’s an article in a magazine or newspaper — even the comic strip!

Sometimes it comes in the form of a dream, or a dream fragment.

Sometimes it’s something you see, or think that you see, out of the corner of you eye. Then it’s gone in a flash!

I like to think of these “nudges from the universe” as a game or a puzzle. It’s FUN!

It’s up to me to interpret what they mean and what I’m to do with them.

That’s how the “BlockHeads” came to be (btw: they desperately want a new name so if you have any ideas, please share them with me!)

The other day, as I lay down to take a ten-minute nap (I’ve been a “power-napper since high school), this phrase popped into my head:

I’ve got more than a few ideas of what to do with this, and I’m open to finding out more — and a bit excited about it too.

I must confess that all these ideas, coming so quickly, make me wonder how to squeeze more hours into each new day!

What a wonderful problem to have!

I drew this Octopus in my journal. That's when I saw a piece of coral on the lanai from a new angle, and it looked like an octopus. What fun!

I wouldn’t have this kind of fun if I weren’t aware of all the guidance surrounding me.

In the “olden days” (a.k.a Biblical/Torah/Koran times) people talked of angels appearing. Heck, Angels started to reappear in the 1970s too!

Intuition is another common word for guidance.

No matter what verbiage you use, I know you receive guidance too.

Remember: STOP, LOOK,
AND LISTEN!

It might take a while for you to be aware of all the guidance you’ve been receiving, but once you do, your excitement levels will soar!