FROM MY HEART TO YOURS

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.

Chinese proverb

This is a heart-shaped bottle that is sitting on my bedroom window sill. It is filled with sea glass that I have collected from various trips to the ocean throughout the years. From this view I can see down the road but my only neighbors are the trees and their inhabitants.

The trees at this time of the year are still bare from their Winter sleep but they will soon be bursting with new leaves.

Down the road approximately a mile and lower in elevation, the trees are starting to produce their annual leaves. As the new leaves start to unfurl they produce a great color that is really hard to describe. It is not quite brown and not quite green. but, by looking at it you know that it is filled with life and ready to start a new season. they are "turning over a new leaf", literally. New nesting places for the birds, new food for the squirrels, new food for the caterpillars, etc. Nature is incredible and quite the creator.

Mother Nature is the original artist. I look toward her for inspiration at points in my life; actually most points in my life. She can paint with such a broad stroke and doesn't concern herself with which colors belong next to each other. On the other hand, she can make finite decisions and details that I could not begin to imagine on my own. Wouldn't it be great if she would teach a class at the ocean some day? I could use a little R&R away from home. And more sea glass for my heart bottle.

I'm sure that if I was really paying attention I would find that she is teaching me classes each and every day. I am just not always looking or paying attention. That is the thing about life: you have to realize how lucky you are to be here and really be present in the moment; the NOW.

Each and every day there are a multitude of opportunities to create, explore, and experiment. I have to remind myself that it is OK if things are not perfect and that everything doesn't have to match and be exactly "right". Wasn't it Bob Ross who used to call it a "happy accident?" I used to laugh at him and the way that he taught painting on TV but now I think that really he had the right idea. He was doing it at least. He was exploring and experimenting. I'm sure he had some mistakes but then every once in awhile there was that "happy accident" --that AH-HA! moment.

I promise myself to create more; to explore and experiment no matter what the outcome might be. I, too, will be turning over a new leaf. Anyone want to join me at the ocean? Mother Nature is calling...