Each of us have probably seen a National Geographic expedition to the top of a snow capped mountain. I once had my own travels to the Matterhorn in Switzerland. At its base, it stands a mere 10,695 feet while at the peak, it stands 14,691 feet. By no means is it insignificant. The majesty and lure draws skiers and mountain climbers from around the world. I spent an awe-inspiring day skiing around the alpine slopes that surround Matterhorn. I was not prepared for the beauty, but I also was not prepared for the struggle I would endure to get down the mountaintop… alone with one other skier at the end of the day… to ski across the face of a glacier (the one over my right shoulder in the picture…). All I can say, is it was worth the effort. I could have stayed in the lodge, but at the end of the day, we set off on the gondola for one final run… a run from the top. The top of the ridge is also the border between France and Switzerland. Had I the time, I might have skied in two countries that day, but it was time to finish what we set off to do. And off we went.
There times in our life that we need to stop watching the action on television, and go on an adventure of our own. You can never start until you take the first step. You never know what will happen until you get back. I leave you with the following to ponder, as you dream about going on your next adventure.
In 1951, W. H. Murray wrote the following in The Scottish Himalaya Expedition:
When I said that nothing had been done I erred in one important matter. We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts. We had put down our passage money — booked a sailing to Bombay. This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets”:
Indecision brings its own delays,
And days are lost lamenting o’er lost days.
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute;
What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.
And when your eyes
freeze behind
the gray window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colors,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.
So, my son is trying to get out of 8th grade… I mean pass his history class so he does not have to repeat. So, for his final project he made a little video presentation. We are hoping that Mr. Rice has a sense of humor … Enjoy
Where have your thoughts taken you today? What is it that motivates you to do what you do? How do we accomplish anything in life? What beautiful think have you meditated on? How has God revealed something in your life?
Everything you do is guided by thought. What are the 7 thoughts that govern, shape and determine my life. What are those secret thoughts that you secretly keep coming back to? Every day you are using thought weather you realize it or not. The world you inhabit, and see is shaped by the way you see it. The way you see is shaped by the way you think. So if you really want to change your life, the best way to do it is to change the way you think. ~John O’Donohue, Greenbelt 2007
Later on in the talk he says that there was a beautiful young woman who lived her life by leading with her beauty… but with regard to her ability to have an intelligent conversation he said, “If there was a thought in her head, it would be in the loneliest place on earth.” LOL… How true that can sometimes be. I often have too much going on in my life and my brain just shuts down. It is like an old manual typewriter that has had a child press all of the keys at the same time, and not a single keystroke can hit the paper, because they are all jammed up in a cluster. I sometimes have clusters of thought, ideas that I wonder about. It can take a while to sort it all out, but in the end, something rises to the surface and becomes dominate.
I am finding that I enjoy being pushed by a deadline. I am motivated by constant pressure to produce. I thrive in a fast paced world where there are many things going on at the same time. I may not be able to multi-task and give my attention to more than one thing at a time, but I like to have a lot of options.
I also enjoy solitude when I can get it because it gives my mind an often needed break. It also provides a space for me to have those thoughts that can shape me… to hear from the creator and open my imagination to possibilities. As a creator, I am glad to know that we were created in God’s Image (Imago Dei) and have an endless stream of possibilities for creating today’s horizon. Do you know your future? Perhaps… What are you thinking right now?
In his book “The Everyday Work of Art, Awakening the Extraordinary” Eric Booth opens Chapter 1 with this…
Art, like sex is too important to leave to the professionals — too important because of the delight and satisfaction it provides, and too important because of its role in creating each person’s future. This book is dedicated to restoring our artistic birthright: an endless intercourse with attractive things.
Wow, what a great hook for an opening paragraph. I just put this book on my “Wish List”. I already have over a dozen books on my “to-be-read” bookshelf that I have already purchased. In my daily search for the Beautiful, I have been reading a more poetry, watching the long shadows move along the ground, looking at back-lit leaves on spring trees and gazing at post-dusk satellites that float overhead in star strewn space. Watch out for the Beautiful! You will welcome the surprise it brings.
Here is a short poem by my (I-never-met-the-man-but-I-miss-him-dearly) friend John O’Donohue…
I would love to live
Like a river flows
Carried by the surprise
Of its own unfolding
So, what are you reading or seeing that inspires you to be watchful for the Beautiful?
So, here is the very first early sketch of a new painting. This is the 4th of my “Face of Love” series. After drawing it with pencil, I began to do a wash of burnt umber and walnut oil. I will not be able to get back to it until Sunday night. This will be called “I was Thirsty” and is going to be my hope that through it, I will raise the funds necessary to build a well in a waterless village in Africa. I am inspired by the hundreds of churches that are conspiring together this Advent Season to provide funds to allow Living Water to build hundreds of new wells around the world.
This is from the Advent Conspiracy website… “Drilling a fresh water well is a relatively inexpensive, yet permanent solution to this epidemic… Solving this water problem once and for all will cost about $10 billion. Not bad considering Americans spent $450 billion on Christmas last year. Our hope is that, by celebrating Christ in a new way at Christmas, the church can serve as the leading movement behind ending the water crisis once and for all.”
I know a few more churches this year that are involved in this effort. I am joining in with this new painting. I will be spreading the word throu this blog, and in due time, through art shows. Now to get back to painting … which will be difficult during this time of year. but I will work on it as much as I can. Soon, I will also be adding a new “Faces of Love” page to display each of the paintings in the series together.
“thresholds”…which comes from “thrashing” – which is to separate the grain from the husk. So, the threshold is a place – you move into a more critical, challenging and worthy fullness.
When someone calls you and says to you that someone you love is suddenly dying, it takes 10 seconds to communicate that information. But, when you put the phone down, you’re already standing in a different world. Because everything that seems so important before, is all gone, and now you’re thinking of this. So the given world we think is there, and the solid ground we’re on is so tentative, and I think a threshold is a line which separates two territories of spirit… and I think that how we cross is the key thing.
Beauty is about more rounded substantial “becoming”. When we cross a new threshold, if we cross worthily, we heal the patterns of repetition that were in us, that had us “caught” somewhere. And in our crossing, we cross on to new ground where we don’t just repeat what we’ve been through in the last place we were. So, beauty is about an emerging fullness, a greater sense of grace and elegance, a deeper sense of depth and also a kind of homecoming for your unfolding life.
By-the-way, at exactly 4:59pm (PST) On Friday June 20th, 2008, the tilt of the Earth’s axis will be oriented directly towards the Sun, causing the Sun to reach its northernmost extreme. The name solstice is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), because at the solstices, the Sun stands still in declination; that is, its apparent movement north comes to a standstill. The term solstice can also be used in a wider sense, as the day that such a passage happens. The solstices, together with the equinoxes, are connected with the seasons…they start or separate the seasons…
On Friday afternoon, I will be with my good friend Dr. Chip at the beach. We will celebrate the passage into a new season together. We must think of something significant to mark this with. Perhaps a single malt dripped on the earth, and raised to the sun in celebration of passages, thresholds and moving through them. Perhaps it will be a painting that will be our memorial. The thing about our moving through the valley of the shadow of death, is that we know that we are going THROUGH, and it is not the place to stay for long. Seeing that there is shadow in this valley, we know that we are surrounded by light… the Light of the world, that on Friday, will cause the sun to stand still for us, unfolding the beauty of life that shines before us.
Postscript… It would be exactly a year from this post (June 18, 2009) that I would suddenly receive that phone call that my father was dying. Suddenly I was standing in a different world. Now, months after his passing, the standing is a bit easier and the Light continues to surround. I am still crossing that threshold, that line in the sand… the line of loss.
While listening to an interview with Neil Diamond (who’s recent album went #1) They played a clip of a new song. I don’t know why, but I found this very funny…
My head is full of images of beauty and wonder as I listen to John O’Donohue. I hold my friends dear to my side in life and friendship, and I want to share the following interview with you that we may talk about this approach to seeing life and beauty and God in each other.
John O’Donohue was an Irish poet and philosopher beloved for his book Anam Cara — Gaelic for “soul friend” — and for his insistence on beauty as a human calling and a defining aspect of God. He was interviewed on Speaking of Faith. When you have an hour (make the time) to listen… go to http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/john_odonahue/ to hear this safari of beauty… or » Download (mp3, 53:05)
Here is a quote from the interview…
“If you realize how vital and important to your whole being, spirit, character and healthy friendship actually is, you will take time for it. The trouble for so many of us is that we have to been in trouble before we remember what’s essential. Sometimes its one of the lonelinesses of humans is that you hold on desperately to the things that make you miserable, and sometimes you only realize what you have when you are almost about to loose it. So I think it would be great to step back from ones life and see those that hold me dear, truly see me and those who I need. and be able to go to them in a different way. The amazing thing about humans is, we have an immense capacity to reawaken in each other the profound ability to be with each other and to be intimate. There is this a lonelinesses here that is being covered over by this fake language of intimacy that you see everywhere.”
“When I think of ‘beauty,’ some of the faces of those that I love come to my mind. When I think of beauty, I also think of beautiful landscapes the I know. Then, I think of acts of such lovely kindness that have been done to me by people that cared for me and in bleak and unsheltered times or when I needed to be loved and minded. I also think of those unknown heros…I also love music, I believe that music is what language would be if it could.”
Please make time to download this to your iPod and listen as you walk along the beach, or at the edge of a forest, or at dusk in your own backyard. When you do, let me know and let’s have a cup together to reflect on it. At the least… feel free to make a comment below. -Peace, Rich
Walk This Way (16 x 20 – on canvas) – 12.31.2002 $650
I made it to San Onofre this morning. We got there just as the tide was going back out and the surf was getting slightly bigger. I had a lot of fun meeting a lot of the locals today. I had one lady walk up with her pre-teen son and ask “are you somebody famous?” I just smiled and said “soon.” There was a professional surfing photographer that stopped by for a while too. Bob Foster has a dad who was an animator with all of the studios in LA. I asked him if his dad was Walter, and he said that he was his GRAND-father. Pretty cool. Walter Foster helped me in my early days by supplying me with some great starter drawing books. In a big way, those Walter Foster books got me started. What a cool full circle meeting I had today with Bob.
Each day I paint, I am learning more. Today’s big revelation was painting the trunks of palm trees. I was reading about how Monet, Seuart, Van Gogh and the rest, were able to mix color not with the brush, but by putting a red spot next to a blue spot. The result is an “optical blend” of purple. I experimented with more of the brush-work that they used to create this effect. The colors I used however, were simply mixed on my palette.
Last night was the first Thursday of the month so I went to Laguna Beach’s Art Walk. I met many artists and saw a lot of paintings that I was inspired by. I was introduced to some folks that form the Southern California Plein Air Painters Association as well as the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association and I am thinking about joining both. The So Cal group goes out every Friday and paints and has monthly outings and potlucks. Sounds like a fun group to be with. The Laguna group has some much more well known artists, and do not meet so often, but they host an invitational in Laguna Beach that I want to be part of this summer. Many painters are members of both, so I think I will be too
Back to San Onofre today. I saw a few of the same locals I met last week. This set of palm trees sit near the south end of the parking strip. They are this lone clump of palms that have always been watching the surf here. Their spent palm frawns have never been removed from the trunks, so they look like they have these long ZZ Top beards. This is my first beach scene with no beach in it. The ocean lies just to the left of the parked cars. I am really enjoying the simple palette that Ken Auster showed me. It contains Cad Yellow, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue. Also Carbon Black and Titanium White. Most of my greens are made from black and yellow. Sometimes there is a touch of blue to cool down the shadows. I met John Eagle at Art Walk and he uses a very bright color palette. I want to do some workshops with him also to get a bit bolder with my colors and spread my wings a little.
A quote
I would love to live like a river flows
Carried by the surprise of its own unfolding
~ John O’Donohue
John O'Donohue reads Beannacht: 
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