mark is musing | Dare Boldly

The View Through My Window This Morning

I got blown away this morning by one short paragraph. Imagine, all it took to stop my heart, deepen my breathing and open my senses wide open to the truth were a string of vowels and consonants strung together to create a vision of wisdom for my soul to feast on.

My blog-friend Val Boyko shares a quote and photo from Zen philosopher Thich Nhat Hanh on her blog this morning entitled, That Particular Moment.

The quote she shares begins with, “When something upsets you, when something happens that is not to your liking in your family or your community, you want to change it right away.” What Thich Nhat Hanh writes afterwards is so simple, so elegant so filled with loving kindness putting it into practice cannot help but create a better world for all.

Go ahead…. Click.

Photographer and a new blog find for me, Mary Hone, shares beautiful photographs of the journey she and her artist husband, Al Hone, are taking on backroads of America with their dog and fifth wheeler on her blog, Tales from the Backroad. On Tuesday, Mary asked for help with votes in a competition she’s entered at Fine Art America. It’s a simple and elegant way to make a difference today simply by clicking on the title above each of Mary’s photos and voting (you need a FB account). You’ll make a difference today and give a feast to your eyes and all your senses.

Go ahead… Click.

Yvonne, at The Presents of Presence, is a breast cancer survivor and a woman of deep faith and beauty. In Wasting a Mind Away, she writes with loving kindness about caring for her Aunt Mable whose mind has been devastated by loss and disease.

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Mark Kolke, the man who originally inspired me to begin blogging 8 years ago, has a blog today on a decision coming down from the Supreme Court of Canada today on Assisted Suicide. A touchy, divisive and important conversation is being held right now on our Eastern slopes to decide, do we or don’t we allow those who are standing helplessly by while loved ones struggle to breathe, ease their pain and suffering. Mark’s post, There Will Be Change, is worth the read. Let’s hope those who make the law of our land agree.

Go ahead… Click.

Have a wonderful Friday!

Art Journal Entry Jan 5
©2015 Louise Gallagher

I love layering when I paint. I love combining words and images, colour and texture. This painting was created in my art journal. The words were added in photoshop and are from my journal.

I am not sure which came first. The painting or the words. Or if they evolved together.

It doesn’t matter how they unfolded. What matters is, they did.

It is part of the flow. Of being in the process versus thinking about HOW I am going to make it happen.

Sometimes, like when I’m painting or writing, I find myself in the flow, at one with its unfolding and I feel embraced and supported by grace and ease.

Other times, like when talking with someone about something that holds an emotional charge, it is a bumpy ride fraught with energetic discourse that doesn’t flow all that smoothly. It is only when I come back to the page, either written or visual, that I find myself again effortlessly easing into the flow that was always there, awaiting my return.

No matter the measure or pace of my journey, whether I willingly surrender my resistance to being present or not, when I allow myself to awaken to the evolutionary impulse to create better, to create more of what unfolds my human condition in Love, miracles happen, art appears, words become my truth.

The other day, while having lunch with my friend Mark of Mark is Musing, he asked me, “Do you know what you’re going to write when you sit down at your computer in the morning?”

I laughed. Seldom do I have a plan for what I’m going to write. Often, I begin with the words, “I wonder what will appear today as I write…” As long as I keep typing, the letters form into words, the words into phrases, the phrases into sentences until eventually, I see the wholeness of what was unfolding through me when I first sat down to type.

“I then go back and delete the beginning thoughts and simply allow what appeared to be present. I seldom edit. I simply let it be.”

It is always a mystery and a miracle to me.

It is always a journey of letting go of fear and trusting in the process.

May you journey through Love today. May your heart be filled with joy. May your body be at rest. May your mind be at One with all that is when you let go of imagining what you need to be or do is anything other than surrender to Love.

Namaste.