Hope

Over the past 24 years science has come a long way. We have all come a long way together. My children are grown and they and their loves, fill my heart with joy everyday. All of the friends I have here, Akita people, artists and folks, have all been a part of this journey. And I remembered something that happened that was truly life changing. The first painting I worked on with my Neuropsychiatrist spoke to me. My therapist encouraged me to find something that would help me to get started. An object in the house would be good. I chose the Menorah. I took it out of our own oak hutch and used that for inspiration. I worked on it a little and it took about a year to paint. I had no idea what it meant. And then one day, I was standing there and a little bit of that wonderful magic gave me an awareness. It really had been the story of my life for the past year.

This is called, "Hope." I painted it while in deep despair. The last thing I felt while I was painting this piece was hope. I wondered what to call it. And then all of the sudden, while standing back and looking at it, an epiphany popped into my consciousness. The candles became smoke stacks. The ground beneath them became burial mounds. An eye appeared in the blue sky and the burning fire became a burning bush, to me. the souls in the mountains were in the land and sea and the earth became this muscular embrace. And all of the sudden I felt hope. A kind of hope I had never understood before. At first I thought, God must have so much faith in us, so much hope in us to keep us alive after all of the damage we had done to all He had created. And then I thought whatever God is to us, whatever the energy or power there is here, in our lives and our history, Hope must certainly be the strongest, most life giving and essential motivations for us to continue. Love and Hope, they are pretty important.

And then it hit me. I could choose to have hope. I could choose to see the good in people. I could choose to have a good and fulfilling life and give whatever I could to my family and hope that would be good enough. And my whole perspective changed. I was looking at life for what I expected to see there. I was just being. And appreciating all of it. The heartache, the ignorance, the ignorance.... yes it deserves to be said at least twice. And I realized something. Regardless, whether people get it or not, care for this planet or not, decide to stop killing each other and destroying the planet or not, I am living today. And I choose to Hope. I choose to Love. I choose to love life. To love nature. To love this day. To love without expectations. I choose to have Hope. I could continue to live in despair. I would take as many breaths I figure. But I thought.... Hope, it is pretty sweet stuff. And I decided to partner up with Hope and Love and keep on truckin. We look around us now and wonder what is going to happen. We don't know but there are times when it looks pretty bad. When we focus on love and hope we begin to feel empowered by all of the possibilities we can share.

Life is good. I hope you have an inspired day.
Oh and Hey Chogyam

beat for beat

This understanding of life is a revelation
all simple

all right here to be seen
all ways
Love with clarity is a powerful thing
it has no end
feathers drifting in the wind speak to me
isn't flight a kick