I’m a creative, experienced, multi-purpose artist and art director
who can take projects start to finish in a variety of styles.

Good designs sell –
my designs sell out!

Saturday, May 24, 2014

"Universe"


"D'ja see where they found a dinosaur bigger than a blue whale?  So now a blue whale isn't the largest animal in the universe anymore, but since Neil deGrasse Tyson wrecked science* I don't believe in evolution anymore."  I laughed and told my brother I was going to quote him.

Sometimes I write and feel magic channeled through my fingertips.  This is not one of those days.  I'm struggling with universal issues and questions... people are difficult, work takes up too much of my time, what am I going to do with the rest of my life, why am I here, how much time do I have left, do I matter in the universe?

I had some near death experiences (NDEs) when I was young, Dad died, and other people I knew died.  When we experience things like that we start asking those universal questions early and urgently.  Time is short.  Do what matters NOW.

But then, I was young.  I didn't have the endurance to keep that kind of urgency all the time.  Sometimes cuddling for an entire day is the best possible thing to do even if there isn't anything to show for it afterwards, but maybe those NDEs enforced my feeling that I better appreciate cuddling to the max if that's how I spend one of my numbered days.

I work around a lot of old people now.  They keep commenting on how young I am, bless their hearts :)  When the person commenting is 80-something with hips, knees, and heart valve replaced I suppose I do look pretty young.  Which makes me feel like I better get out there and DO something because the time is running out.  Climb a mountain, paint the masterpiece, write the novel, fulfill my destiny!

I don't want to spend my entire life working and thinking about work.  I'm young enough to go out and do stuff... yet my life seems to point to a long record of workaholism and sloth, either/or but never balanced, and never enough $ in the bank from the profits I've given others.  I want balance, but have a hard time if things aren't done "right" or well.

While trying to write something worthwhile in this post I kept thinking about the ample knowledge I'd like to share, which some people don't want to learn.  Here's my artistic tip for the week... when designing something, have a reason for whatever you include in it.  Don't just fill up space.  When you take extra effort to do something better, people respond.  For example, if you do a fall scene, don't paint tulips in the garden because they're easier than mums.  Everybody will say "Gee, that's stupid.  Tulips bloom in spring!"  What's worse is that it'll be the first and last thing they notice about it too.

I have a lot of wisdom like that.  Now somebody might be upset with me because tulips was an actual example this week (in a different context).  At least I don't have a tulip-induced migraine this time :)

I had more little wooden veneer squares left over from the work project and then left over from last week's recipe boxes.  Bro had a table with a wrecked top but now it's all pretty and the polyurethane is drying on it out on the back deck.

*Tyson led the movement to demote Pluto to a dwarf planet.

14 comments:

  1. Linda you are so right to get a balance...we only get one chance at this life game ;0) Your table is just fabulous, your bro must be delighted with it. Working amongst the oldies should indeed make you feel young. You are always really as old as you feel....but don't quote me as I feel about 23 until I look in the mirror and a middle aged woman stares back...LOLOL!! Enjoy your Sunday x

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  2. Thanks Jane! My brother says he's happy with the table. It was actually a lot easier than fiddling all those tiny pieces of wood on the recipe boxes. I think I feel about 35. I'm aiming to feel 23 again. Don't worry about the mirror - it lies!!!

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  3. About that mirror - I insist on carrying a mental image around of myself - young and beautimous. Then I'm surprised when others don't respond as if I were young...etc. Still, I think it's healthy. See yourself as you think you are. Remember what our mothers told us about inner beauty. And yes, the table is fab.

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  4. I think you're right Terri. When I look at my old ladies at work their inner beauty is what makes them beautiful even with wrinkles.

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  5. Nice table, kiddo! I hate it when people call me sir...

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  6. Sage ones have always said that we can't always know what kind of positive influence we will have on another person's life, or maybe not know until years and years later. So "doing something meaningful" seems like it has to be for oneself alone, a 'selfish' motive, so to speak. Of course, that idea immediately starts ringing all of those moralistic bells that we've been taught to avoid by being strictly self-less. But, if I do something simply because I love it, my life suddenly makes sense...and then anyone else's benefit, approval, appreciation, etc. is just the icing on the cake that I'm already enjoying (whether I live long, or get paid well or become famous for doing it or not). Life is short...do whatever it is simply because you love it. Work out the rest (esp. that bugger money) as separate problems...or, more radically, "Do what you love and the money will follow," as Marsha Sinetar wrote so many years ago. I have decided to insist that the Universe is friendly, and that I *can* dream a life I love...any other approach to life is just too darn hopeless and painful. It's not the philosophy that our country was founded on, but what can one expect when we came from a bunch of Puritans? I don't think the current version of that ideology, in the form of, "Life is suffering," is really any different than the original "Work hard, sacrifice, and you'll get your reward in Heaven," soul-killing approach to life...just garb(-led) in Eastern mystic lingo...

    Gorgeous table, Linda!! Looks like something you really love doing that "the money could follow" to me... ♥

    P.S. I think my own mental mirror meter stopped at age 16. And even though I was a serious and responsible teenager, you can imagine what challenges seeing the world through the perpetual eyes of a 16 year old could present. I may be stuck in a permanent, "Question Reality!" phase. :-)

    Answers only come when we ask questions...keep asking your questions, Linda, it's one of the best things about you.

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  7. Linda, have you ever thought how old or young you are in your dreams? I recentely discovered that I'm not aging in my dreams. This is interesting because perhaps this says something about the ageless soul. I feel like that (not physically) and it resulted in me climbing on the roof of our neighbouring house to save a common swift. Once I was back, I thought "Not bad for a woman aged 50", but more than that, confronted with a bird in need, I acted ageless. I agree with Susan in that we must do what we are good at and love to do and if the money doesn't follow, seperate that from it. Your place in the universe? Being an inspiration to all of us.
    Big hug, Paula

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  8. I don't know about that "the money will follow", but I'm pretty sure if you don't love what you do you'll kill yourself by inches whether you have money or not. Or at least that's true for me. Sometimes I give myself reminders about whatever I have, I have enough for me. I haven't starved to death yet.

    Once in a while I get a reminder that something I did a long time ago mattered to someone else. Those are moments that I feel like I've done something good and justify my existence -- but those moments were never based on getting karma points. I was just living my life and it had a positive overflow for someone else.

    I don't think I can stop asking questions. It's built into my hardware :)

    Thanks for the comments! I love it when you give me more stuff to think about!!

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  9. That table is work of art! I got a manuscript recently and it was raining (I thought spring showers) and the little girl had to stay inside and play. So I drew tulips in mason jars on the window sill. I think I'm in the clear. Whew!

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  10. LOL Sharon. As long as it wasn't raining in the fall. I've been walking around my house wondering what else needs covered with little wood veneer squares :)

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  11. GORGEOUS table, & I love the image at the top!!! Yes, I often find my universe centers around work, too, with very little time for much else these days, except sleep. Sigh!

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  12. Thanks Mit! Here's to hoping that we both find time to enjoy the summer!

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  13. Don't we all want that balance - which is so hard to come to. And don't we all struggle with the big questions of life - which are even harder to come to. What better then than to make a gorgeous table. Took a lot of love I bet.

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  14. If only everything could be made with love, right? Thanks for the comment Otto!

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