The Book of Qualities

UNCERTAINTY

I have lived with Uncertainty for a long time.  I had thought ours would have been a much briefer affair.  I had no idea how intimate we'd become until you showed up.

And now you are asking me to leave him, and there are a few things I need to know.  Who are you?  What are your motives?  Can I trust you?  Is it really me you want to spend more time with or Uncertainty you yearn to visit?

                                                                                      J. Ruth Gendler

Freedom from worry, a goal to strive for!

Oh for the freedom of childhood!  As I watch my nearly 4 year old granddaughter, I see that maintaining their element of surprise and astonishment at each new day and each new experience can add dimension to one's life that seems to be missing from many of our adult lives.  When you smoosh around paint and scribble with pencils, bang on metal, spread solder we are fortunate to regain a piece of that freshness and openness that gives us such pleasure.  How fortunate is the artist!   We recreate nature, our emotions, our lives by the manipulation of inanimate tools.  We change nature, add to it, take away.  What a way to expend frustration, anger, sadness!  We, too, can have a run on the beach with abject glee without even leaving our studios.  Is that why we create art, for the freedom it gives us?

Grandmothers are blessed!

Aloha!

Greetings from the Aloha State!  We are spending our family Holiday Vacation, complete with my son-in-law, Clark.  I do resist calling him Sparky mostly!  It is hard not to relax while you are on the beach.  This the view from the deck!  However, silly me, I thought I just needed some forced down time.  As a result, I didn't bring anything to work on artwise!  How frustrating.  I don't think my granddaughter wants me cutting up her coloring books and stealing puzzle pieces.  And I have no independent transportation, so no sneaking trip to a craft/art store.  However, I don't really know where one is, as we are on the North Shore of Oahu, lots of surfers, otherwise. . .  And it is such a beautiful setting to free my muse!  If only I had brought some watercolor oil pastels, a black marker, and some water pens and a glue stick.  I could have gone to town.  Let this be a lesson, art is part of living and and food for the soul, not something one needs to relax from!!!  I am getting some reading in, tho.  

A new little book I have recently become acquainted with is "The Book of Qualities" by J. Ruth Gender.  It is really wonderful and so insightful.  In addition, her illustrations are fabulous!  Here is a passage that speaks to me.

"Patience

Patience wears my grandmother's filigree earrings.  She bakes marvelous dark bread.  She has beautiful hands.  She carries great sacks of peace and purses filled with small treasures.  You don't notice Patience right away in a crowd, but suddenly you see her all at once, and then she is so beautiful you wonder why you never saw her before."