I DID IT AGAIN!

I just wrote a post about seeing things as they really are instead of as they appear on that imprinted tv screen behind your eyeballs.


I wrote it about painting...and about life.

Then, I started a painting with a bunch of flowers in it and I painted those flowers as they appear on that imprinted tv screen behind my eyeballs. They looked like.........well, you know. Starts with 'h'. Rhymes with 'bell.' In short, they looked like hell.

I could not help myself. I had a little rhyme going on there and just had to play it out! Sorry for the bad word. A little.

Anyway, even with the words I had just written still ringing in my own ears, I reverted to old bad habits the very next day!

And isn't that just the way it is. We 'learn' a truth. Believe it. Share it. Preach it. And then, we act as if we'd never learned it at all.

Someone says or does something we perceive as unkind to us and we get hurt, angry or fearful and forget that we have a choice in the matter. When, in fact, we do. We can choose to look at the old re-play of the movie flickering on our mind's tv screen. Or we can open our minds and see that we can choose to not react to an unkindness at all. It doesn't have to hurt us. It doesn't have to anger us. And it doesn't have to scare us.

And that, is the truth.
We see it.
We believe it.
Share it.
Preach it.
And then.......well you know what happens next.

But with time and practice and determination and mind cleansing, that can change. It really can. Change isn't always easy. I had to re-paint a whole lot of this painting to create the illusion of reality.  I didn't succeed...totally.  I still see many things which could be improved.  But it's better than it was.  And I choose to pat myself on the back for what I've done better than to beat myself up for what I haven't done perfectly.

And that's the way we create reality, instead of illusion, in our lives.  We just do it again...but in a different way...till eventually it becomes second nature.

We can choose drama.

In a painting, that might be a good touch.  In life, it just gets tiring.

Or, we can choose peace.

Peace, in a painting is often desirable.  And for me, it is always preferable in my life.  Peace.  Joy.  Love.

And gratitude.

All choices.

I continue to be grateful for the life lessons which painting teaches me.