The Morning Commute Along the Everglades

Most people have to wake up and go to work.  As you know, this is called a commute.  Many of us have a long commute, I remember while living in Miami, the commute would last an hour for only about a 15 mile drive.  Well, I’m glad that is over with, but that got me thinking of the exact opposite of a full on rush hour, nature.

Animals also have to get food and take care of young ones, so I decided to paint an everglades version of the typical commute.  You have the peaceful water or “river of grass” with a mangrove pushing out to break the landscape.  On the mangrove you see that beautiful bird, the roseate spoonbill.  Watch out, traffic is really getting heavy with a heron flying by.  Here’s to hoping your next commute it this peaceful.

The Morning Commute

 

Taking the Time to Stop and Smell the… Hibiscus

“Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.”  ―  Georgia O’Keeffe

I’ve always liked the hibiscus flower.  It is so colorful and large, it is perhaps why people invented the Hawaiian Shirt.  They wanted to look as cool as that plant with those awesome flowers.  As a kid I would often walk up real close to the hibiscus and stare at the flower.   I would hold the flower and look closely.  I would look at all the detail in each petal and the unworldly look of the flower’s pistil.  But when holding the flowers I would get several ant bites.  I thought maybe I would pick the flower and take it home to study better with out the pesky ants.  After doing this, the flower died shortly.

Life got busy and I rarely looked at the flowers.  I would see flower as part of a set decoration of life, rarely going close to them to observe.  This was unusually for me, because for an artist the name of the game is to observe.  It was only recently that I got back into flowers, their unique designs and their overall beauty.  The hibiscus will always be a special flower to me and apparently I’m not the only one.  The hibiscus is often associated with the Hindu Goddess Kali and Tahitian women wear the red hibiscus flower to indicate their availability.  Finally, the hibiscus is the national flower of South Korea.  The flower’s beauty can be painful (insect bites) and delicate, but perhaps this makes them more beautiful.  So take some time to smell the hibiscus.

Successful New Year’s Resolutions in Five Steps

New Years is the last holiday in a long season of holidays that basically start with Thanksgiving.  Many retailer are trying to extend that feeling of Holidays all the way to Halloween.  Well, no matter where it officially starts, New Year’s eve it the end and New Years day is the beginning.  New Years is special because it is the end and the beginning.  Wow, that sounds like a movie tag line, but you get my point.  The New Year symbolizes a rebirth of sorts, it is a time for us to look at what we want to fix in our lives.  These fixes are called “Resolutions”.  We are going to be more involved with our family, get out of debt and the most popular resolution of all to lose weight.  It is the time we look at ways to improve ourselves.  I am for us to improve ourselves, or as my son would say become an ultimate version of ourselves, but often it is difficult and causes too much stress.

1.  Concentrate of the positive

First, before we look at what’s wrong in our life, we should take time about what is going well.  What we did in the past year that was successful.  Maybe we lost a few pounds, perhaps we reduced our debit a few hundred dollars or we did spend a little more time with our family.  Take the time and look at the positive things that happened, even if they were your resolutions from last year or not.  This step is important, think of the positive  points in your life.

2.  Give yourself some credit

You did it, you improved some part of your life, be it small or big.  Maybe you didn’t gain any weight, and the years before you always gained wait. Perhaps you are going to church or temple a few times more that you did the year before.  Maybe you earned a little extra or you spent less money this year.  Whatever the little positive improvement you made is, enjoy it.  Give yourself credit.

3.  What do you need to work on?

Now that you are feeling good about yourself, take some time and look at where you need to make some improvements.  Now don’t beat yourself up.  Really take a look at what you can improve.

4.  Make the improvements realistic.

You really want to lose 60 pounds or you want to get out of tons of debt.  These goals, are noble but for most people they are extremely hard to complete in one year.  Make your goals a little more reasonable.  Perhaps take on 20 pounds this year.  Make sure they are realistic, but not too easy.  If is something you can easily complete in a month, it is probably too easy, you should make the goal a little harder.  Yeah, it’s a fine line between too easy or too hard, the middle is perfect.  These improvements are your resolutions.

5.  Take it easy, you have a whole year.

Most people get all pumped up and start working real hard towards your goals.  If you go into a gym you see this all the time, the first few weeks of the New Year everyone is at the gym trying to lose weight because of their New Year’s Resolution.  At the end of January it is starting to look like a ghost town.  The only people at the gym are the people who made it a habit.  They don’t go all out and flame out.  They take their time.  It is like the fable of the “Tortoise and the Hare”.  Slow and steady wins the race.  This is the same with New Year’s Resolutions, we get excited and work hard on our resolutions just like the Hare, but it is the small consistent steps that will help you last all year and conquer your goal.

If you follow the steps above you will feel better about yourself and be less stressed.  Relax, enjoy the journey and good luck!