Category Inspire

Art, drawing class – tapping into our inner artist

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FEAF1040-3ADC-4C9C-AA23-31734AD893B6When I was young, drawing and painting were not encouraged. My parents didn’t go to College, they wanted “better” for their children. Anything to do with art was frivolous, would get us “no where.” Focus on studying to get a “real job,” they said. We had to support ourselves. It’s a tough world out there. Sound familiar?

Fast forward, zillions of years later…

I decided — it’s time to have fun! Treat myself to an illustration class, see what it is all about. Is it true that I have no artistic abilities? I needed to find out.

I was AFRAID, none of us want to embarrass ourselves with the worst drawing ever.

What have I learned? First, drawing can be done anywhere and it is fun! Artists practice, a lot. The more you practice, the better you become. I had no idea. This sounds silly, I know, but I thought being an artist was EASY. It’s actually hard work! Second, being an artist takes determination and dedication. To be good at anything, we need to be passionate and put the time in to practice.

I’m sharing some of my sketches with you.

Last year, I was on the train in Italy. I noticed a woman writing in her journal the entire hour. I thought how dedicated she was. When I got up to leave, I walked by her. Guess what, she wasn’t writing, she was sketching a portrait of a man on the train — unknown to him. It looked beautiful.

Yes, practice makes perfect. My instructor said, “Everyday, you must sketch. As you sketch, you become faster at sketching anything (draw the perfect circle, the perfectly straight line, arms, hands, cars, houses, etc.). Through practice and mistakes, a head that seems too large, might turn out to be your nutty professor.

That is the beauty of art, what seems like a mistake, might be your next masterpiece!

Next, painting with watercolors.

Art, any form of it, does make us HAPPY!

This is the just the beginning…

Tiger Woods – Golf -> Ultimate Victory

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Tiger Woods win in the Masters yesterday was a real victory for him and for us. It shows us that life gives us set backs (personal, physical, etc.), but through perseverance, hard work, constant belief in our goals that victory can be obtained. His last win was in 2005, this is quite a come back.

Champions never give up believing, Tiger Woods proved that!

Wonderful to see him hugging his son, his mother…

By the way, there is a story out there that says when you win the green jacket, you only get to keep it at your home for a year, then you need to give it back. WHAT? Also, that the green jacket they put on him was his old jacket, not a new one. WHAT AGAIN? I’m not a golfing fan, need to read more about this. Surprised, of course.

Congratulations!

Comedy, as writing inspiration, get rid of writer’s block…

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As a writer, we get “writer’s block.” Life becomes overwhelming, ideas are not flowing freely. We need to find a way to open the channels of our creativity.

Comedy – I decided I needed to laugh.

By chance, I found a TV show called, “Miracle Workers,” I gave the first episode a shot, it was SO FUNNY! It just came out 2019. I laughed, because they show God in a corporate office in Heaven, sitting on a sofa switching through TV Channels to see what is happening on Earth. He’s so disappointed with what he sees… like us, God is tired of his job and decides he will just blow up Earth and start a new project.

I laughed AGAIN, because in Heaven there is a department called, “Unanswered Prayers.” They show only two people in charge of that department with piles and piles of requests, they can’t possibly help everyone.

So, that explains it, my “unanswered prayer” has been sitting in God’s slush pile for 7 years collecting dust.

If you take a look at this Youtube trailer for the show, you’ll understand why this comedy is so hilarious. Silly sure, but just what a writer needs to laugh a little and be reminded that God gets tired too and that sometimes we just have to do it ourselves!

Basically, this is a humorous way of comparing Heaven to normal life in a corporation.

Show is based on the novel What’s in God’s Name by Simon Rich.

Being robbed on the train…hide cell phones

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C38C7E42-4E6F-43DD-9CB6-00E51BE9A347A few weeks ago I was on the train. A young woman was sitting across from me, when a man came asking for money. The woman and I looked at each other, we spoke through our eyes… we would like to help, but he was a stranger, we did not know where that would lead, so we did not give any money.

Once the man left, the woman said, “I’m afraid to help people now.”

”What do you mean,” I said.

She told me that a few days before she was on the train at 1:30 pm. She had a seat close to the exit, where the doors open. There were probably 10 people on board. She was on her phone texting. A young man got up to exit, when the doors opened, he quickly grabbed her phone out of her hands and was gone!

She was startled, scared, in horror… all the motions we go through when we have just been robbed.

We discussed the fact that when we are on our phones, we are oblivious to our surroundings. We also talked about the sadness in having to live in a world where we feel we need to be invisible, i.e. to not bring attention to ourselves, dress plainly and so on.

This picture from Pixabay.com illustrates how easy it is for someone to pull the phone out of our hands.

I share this story today as a reminder to be aware of your surroundings. We never know when something like this might happen to us. I’ve been passing the word along to fellow passengers myself.

Tell your friends/family, even holding your phone, so it cannot be grabbed out of your hands would be a deterrent. We need to help each other.

On a happier note, we are having Spring weather. It’s beautiful.

GUESS WHAT – snow flurries predicted for Thursday!? We don’t believe it!

“Afghan Cycles” – A documentary about Afghani women learning to cycle for independence and freedom…

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Afghan Cycles movie poster

Photo courtesy of “Afghan Cycles,” http://www.afghancycles.com

A few years ago, I heard about a group of women in Afghanistan who were learning to cycle. They were starting a documentary about this, but it was going to take time to produce. Good news, last year the movie Afghan Cycles, produced by Let Media made it’s debut. I want to spread the word about it.

The Bicycle Story wrote an article, “Shannon Galpin: Riding to Revolution in Afghanistan” back in 2014 to share the start of this story. Shannon Galpin is from Colorado. She is the founder and President of Mountain2Mountain, which is a non-profit focused on global women’s rights.

Galpin’s focus on Afghani women and bikes started in 2009 when she brought her mountain bike to Afghanistan. As she rode around on her bike, it sparked conversation and interest from women about riding. In 2013, she started working and training with the Afghan National Women’s Cycling Team, as well as bike clubs that had started. On her website (Shannon Galpin), she has pictures of this journey and the women cyclists!

Afghan Cycles 4

Photo courtesy of “Afghan Cycles,” http://www.afghancycles.com

Sarah Menzies, Let Media, is a Producer, Editor, Filmmaker and brilliant story teller. It has taken her five years to produce this film with many rounds of fundraising, research, and trips to Afghanistan involved. You can see this documentary was long coming. I hope you will take a moment to read their story and view the film!

Let Media is asking us to spread the word. They welcome people to contact them to set up a screening of the film in their cities.

Here is how you can watch the film:

Available On Demand

The film is available for purchase on the following platforms:
US: iTunes, Microsoft, Google Play, Vudu and Amazon.
Canada: iTunes, Microsoft, Google Play
UK: iTunes, Amazon Microsoft, Google Play
Ireland: iTunes, Microsoft, Google Play

MY FINAL THOUGHTS…

When I was young and learned to ride a bike… IT’S TRUE, it gave me confidence, after I fell a zillion times, of course! A few scraped knees and elbows never stopped me. I had freedom and independence to go where I wanted in our neighborhood. I had a newspaper route where I made money, riding the bike also taught discipline and respect for my vehicle. How many times did I learn to put the chain back on, oil the chain, put the bell and basket on my bike and fix a flat tire (too many to count).

I loved the feel of the “fresh air” (spring, summer & fall) as I rode along Lake Michigan. Riding a bike was, and is, a powerful feeling. I can understand woman around the world wanting the same freedom and independence that I had.

If any of you (male or female) have had these same feelings of bike riding than you can understand how important this documentary is, so please… don’t be shy… share with others!

Sore throat? HALLS cough drops will give you inspiration…

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I had to share this with you. When we have a sore throat many of us turn to Halls cough drops. In a hurry, we take the cough drop out of the wrapper, pop the cough drop in our mouth and throw away the wrapper.

Now, have you ever looked at the wrapper? I have to admit, I have not. Well, for some reason my daughter did. It was so amusing, the wrapper was filled with motivational messages.

So, as I am getting a cold… arghhh… I smiled at my Halls wrapper message today.

I sure do need a “battle cry!”

Thanks, HALLS!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from CHICAGO!

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8BF7374E-9223-490E-B952-5BC3D488D751For those of you not in Chicago, you can see we take St. Patrick’s Day very seriously! Every year, they turn the river green. It’s a site to see!

I wanted to share with you some photos of the river from different angles. We were lucky and had wonderful weather. Fun to see people dressed in green. The Irish are a lively bunch.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Exercise, going to the gym… WHY do I resist?

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0F0940F2-A9CB-46EC-915C-1EBB132D0C60For over a week, I have resisted going to the gym. I enjoy exercise when I am outside, walking/hiking, I love the fresh air. BUT going to the gym, just hearing the word “gym” makes me resist. Every day, I have good intentions; yet, fail to follow through.

Why? I dislike the extra work of carrying a gym bag, getting there, changing clothes. You see, I am exhausted thinking of this. If it is in the morning and I need to shower, then I have the added stuff (makeup, deoderant (heaven forbid I forget that), work clothes, work shoes) that I need to carry, it gets heavy. At night, if I go home and THINK I will go to the gym after I eat dinner — that does not happen.

Yesterday, I beat myself up over this. I had the self talk conversation in my mind saying, “STOP with the nonsense, get to the gym.”

I’ve been tired lately, so the rebuttle from the “other side” of my brain was being lazy. Take it easy, rest today, go tomorrow. I started to fight those negative thoughts.

As I was deciding which way I would go, my daughter sent me a text, it said, “Look what is on TV at the gym, it’s Brunetti!”

WHAT?? I SMILED REALLY BIG, not CNN, not ESPN, but MHz! Donna Leon’s books have been turned into a mini-series, and “Inspector Brunetti” was on the television.

THIS WAS A GAME CHANGER. I could work out while watching an Italian detective show that takes place in Venice!

Suddenly, my brain did a switch over. Amazing, my mind was “now focused” on the positive aspect of exercising (Inspector Brunetti), which made me forget about the drudgery of carrying my gym bag.

Hallelujah, a major break through!

Hello gym, here I come…

Travel Tour websites… Why go it alone?

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Egypt Rock TempleA girlfriend of mine is going to Italy in May and was looking up travel tours. I’ve never done a travel tour… OOPs, I take that back. My mother found a 10 day river cruise in Egypt that we went on. It was a FABULOUS trip. A travel package was critical in seeing all of the different sites. We needed a tour guide, he gave us the history behind the Abu Simbel Temples, Giza Pyramids, the Sphinx — there was so much to see. Incredible!

Other than that, I’ve normally gone on a trip and done my own planning. Why? Well, I don’t enjoy being on a constant schedule. If I am on a vacation, I want to relax a bit.

However, trips/tours make life easy, especially when the package is all inclusive (airfare, hotel, transportation), it takes the stress out of planning.

I came across these travel websites that were interesting.

horse riding tour

In The Saddle – This is a tour group that specializes in horseback riding holidays. Wow, right. I know, you’re wondering if I am an accomplished rider. No, but I found their trips interesting and adventurous. Check them out. I might have a sore bottom, but it would be worth it for a different type of adventure.

AdventureWomen – For 35 years, they have been focusing on unique adventure tours for active women. This is great, because in the past there were places that women could not travel alone (i.e. Botswana, Russia, Morocco, India, etc.), or if they did, it was at their own risk. If you are a woman, you’ll enjoy this website.

GROUPON Getaways – A girlfriend speaks highly of their travel packages. She bought a trip to Ireland through them. She said the hotel in different locations was great, they had a rental car, it was a good deal, everything went smoothly, hard to pass up.

Global Drifters – A new site I came across through their Blog. Clicking here and there, I found their travel packages. They are a younger company, visit and see what you think. Their tag line, “Not a Vacation, but an Experience.” They offer small group tours for the independent traveler.

Can you tell I am getting Spring fever?

Anyone open for a horse riding tour? Mongolia, to see the Eagle Festival? Bhutan maybe or back to Italy?

Hoping winter is coming to an end. It’s time for an adventure somewhere in the world!