“The older you get, the better you get, unless you’re a banana.” Betty White Betty White is right. Now in the last quarter of my life, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I’ve become able to respect myself and expect the same from others; talents that eluded me for decades. I no longer kowtow to […]
When I met with the board of The National League of the American Pen Women (whose members are professional artists, writers and composers), I volunteered to lead members on a meditation tour of various Hindu and Buddhist sculptures in the Honolulu Museums of Art. The Board members became enthused, positing ideas of which statues the
“Vulnerability is the best place of innovation, creativity and change.” Brene Brown The problem with Brene Brown’s statement is that it feels terrible to be vulnerable. My hands get clammy. I sweat and think I can never pull another drawing off again. Yet, according to Dr. Brown, I’m in a good place when I begin
“I intend to live forever. So far, so good.” Steven Wright European Baroque painters (1600 to 1750) encouraged viewers to increase their consciousness of death by painting symbols, such as Dutch artist Pieter Claesz did in 1660. He depicted a toppled empty glass with nothing left in it to drink, a stopped clock, a
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Singing in my choir last summer, I focused on mastering the tricky syncopated rhythms in our new song. Ah-ha, I thought, I got it. At the same moment, the choir director said “No, no, no! You didn’t get it.” She explained, one more time, how it should be done. I concentrated, trying to understand. My
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For a year, I looked carefully at teeth, those on my friend’s and family’s faces and my own. To protect my dental roots and painful exposed nerves due to normal receding gums, for a person my age, my kindly dentist suggested covering my front teeth with a filling material. He would, of course, match the
Cherry trees taught me enormous life lessons. When I was eight years old, Mom gave me the job of selling cherries from our fifteen trees to earn money for all my personal expenses: Girl Scout activities and camp, school supplies and field trips, dance classes, private music instruction, comic books or candy from the mom-and-pop
In the painting, Spirit Tree, I pay homage to the invisible forces around us. In the foreground, three smaller trees blow in the breeze, green, full of life. They might be the offspring of the huge tree-shape above. Like a parent, the enormous gray tree looms over them. The larger tree’s absence of color implies
In the drawing Music Meditation by artist Kaethe Kauffman, musical notes surround the meditating figure. She sits in repose, her hair in a casual ponytail. What is the importance of melodies to this meditator? In temples across the globe, one of the traditional offerings to buddha consciousness is music which can suffuse the performers and
The other day, someone I just met, a young woman named Sarah, told me, “I’m a deep person,” meaning that she considered herself to be insightful and intuitive. I responded with a muffled, “Oh,” and swallowed a laugh. It seemed to me that only a shallow person would proclaim herself to be “deep.” I met
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