My beautiful palette.

I had to post a picture of my beautiful palette. It has wheels, and underneath is a little shelf with an old phone book on it so I can wipe the paint residue off my palette knife. I love how all the colours are in order-- I learnt that at university (money well spent), it's so I don't have to think about where the colours are when I'm in the zone. Unfortunately I haven't been in the zone for a while, but the glistening paint surrounded by a forest of brushes continually beckons me to seek it out. I love paint, the look, the feel and smell of it, I really want to go to town and make a big mess, my paintings are far too contolled.

Free to dearest offer.

The Camden art show is coming up. It's a local show where artists can win money and/or sell their work. I have a couple of pieces I'm showing and I have to decide on a price for them. For me art and money are like oil and water, they can co-exist but not mix. Making art for money, I think, is like being Rumplestiltskin backwards and spinning gold into straw. But I guess straw keeps the stable warm.
I'm torn between wanting $1000,000 a piece or giving them away for free. Maybe I should ask for their first born (males only, must be 25 or over).

In the moment...."To be or not to be? That is the question."

I'm finding as this day progresses and each of my four children struggle to establish themselves at the top of the pecking order, that my not being in the moment is working as a tool for self preservation.

Eckhardt Tolle advises that if we are having a negative experience, and can do nothing to change it, we should go more deeply into the moment, without labelling it good or bad, without thought forms of any kind, just observe.
I put Eckhardt's suggestion to the test during root canal therapy. I have to say it absolutely worked! I focused on the light above me, on the feeling in my jaw which had been stretched open for an hour, the sounds and smells of the scraping drill, the chill in my other teeth from the suction device, the debris as it tried to find a way down the back of my throat, and on my overwhelming desire to swallow. I became acutely aware of everything that was happening without judging or labelling anything, and I found that all feelings about the situation disappeared. I felt relaxed and quite peaceful.

I'm going back out there now, to see if I can put it into practise while dealing with the little squabblers.

Time

I was glancing through some family photos and noticed that the recent looking ones are dated Jan '06. I was surprised by the fact that two years have gone by so quickly.
It reminded me of a quote by C.S Lewis. I can't remember it verbatim but the gist of is: The fact that we are constantly surprised by time is like a fish being constantly surprised by water. It must be then, that if time is not natural to us it is because we are infinite beings.

Why is it, on the whole, so difficult to live in the moment, in the only place where life exists? I look back at pictures of the past and feel a tinge of sadness, most of the time I wasn't really there in those precious and beautiful moments with my children.
I guess its never to late to be in the moment. Okay I'm here in the moment, at the moment......