New Tools

I am so grateful to develop new tools for expression.

Everyone I know is so grateful to develop new tools for expression.

Everyone I don’t even know, all over the planet, is so grateful to develop new tools for expression.

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I have signed up for an on-line course in foundations of drawing.

This is a new step for me.

I am able to do it because I have spent several years teaching myself how to draw.

I am ready for some more help now.

I have had a couple of weekend classes, and an on-line lettering class.

But now, I feel I am ready to pay more attention.

I am ready to learn some techniques which have eluded me.

Even so, the time I have spent on my own is valuable.

Creative work in zentangle styles has given me a steadier hand.

It is easier and faster for me to draw leaves to identify trees.

So, I am seeing progress on my own.

Now, after being a terrified adult beginner, I feel better about taking a new step.

Drawing with more understanding will widen my foundation for graphic expression.

It is a whole new world for me.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.takethreedeepbreaths.blogspot.com

In My Own Mind

How can you tell what is going on in your own mind?

There is so much information, media harassment and emotion coming at you all the time.

When it gets intolerable, you can simply stop and let it all wash over you without taking any of it in.

There is a quiet place within you.

You can hear it.

You can feel it.

In that quiet place, you can listen for your own thoughts.

You may experience a parade of thoughts trying to get your attention.

 When they no longer interest you, you will hear the quiet sound of your own thoughts.

You can breathe into that quiet place and that quiet time.

Once you have found it, you can return there often.

The greatest secret is the value of your own thoughts.

They are unique, they are not in competition with anyone else’s.

They assure you a valuable place in society, because society needs your individuality and creativity.

It can certainly be a challenge to develop in this way, but your own thoughts will lead you to the most satisfying work you can every do.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.youngpersonsmentor.blogspot.com

Living and Working in a Natural Setting

What did I do this week to promote the feeling of being loved, cherished and adored?

I helped load a pick-up truck bed full of firewood, ends from a pallet factory, for our wood-burning stove.

It took about a half hour to load, with me standing up higher and higher on the stack so as to take advantage of the gravity effect.  Husband was on the ground.

It took about an hour to unload and stack, with me sitting in the back of the pick-up and moving large, then small, pieces of wood forward for (aforesaid) husband to stack in the newly (husband-) built woodshed.

We now have approximately one-third cord of wood, which should take care of about half our winter needs.

(It doesn’t take much to heat a 12 x 20 tiny house in the woods.)

It just felt good to be working together.

It felt good to be doing something very useful.

It felt good to see measurable results in a couple of hours time.

We are in a beautiful, if overgrown, setting, with clean air and lots of meadow scents and sounds.

It is like bathing in a setting of gentleness and natural comfort.

The senses get to rest.

They are eased form the harshness of mechanical sounds and surfaces.

Yes, it is a lot of work which we didn’t do in our city life.

Yes, we are looking for more ways to make it easier and more comfortable.

For instance, I will plant fruit trees in front of the cabin and other retreat buildings to help deal with the heat.

However, it is unequivocally  rewarding and peaceful to the soul.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.lovedcherishedadored.blogspot.com

Surround Yourself with Beauty and Peace (or make art)

I am enjoying the capacity to make art.

I love making beautiful things.

It puts me in a lovely, uplifting state of happiness.

Drawing zentangle-style word art while my husband reads from “A Course in Miracles” is a calming way to start my day. 

Having convenient access to my fiber art projects lets me take one more step on several of them. (I finished sewing the sleeve to display a quilt and then attached some beads to a knitted spiritual treasure bag.)

As I continue knitting sock #2.2, (I am half-way through the second sock) I can enjoy beautiful yarn to make a useful item.

Living in the country and driving back and forth surrounded by trees is very relaxing.

Even preparing to get the yardstick out of the truck to gently move spider webs off the porch so we can go in unhampered, is just part of experiencing the natural world.

We listen to the night sounds, and check the angle of the sun the next morning to watch for dragonflies.

Every time I open one of Christopher Alexander’s books, “A Timeless Way of Building” or “A Pattern Language”, I am inspired by his observations.

https://www.amazon.com/Christopher-Alexander/e/B000AQ4JVU

There is always a way to look at things with a sense of creating beauty.

There is always a way to more peace and calm and appreciation into your life.

Listen within to hear the messages, then observe how your life redirects itself.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.yourdiamondmind.blogspot.com

God's World, The Infinite Universe

You can’t mess up God’s world.

God’s Law is unbreakable.

You can practice it or not, but it is perfect and it applies in every case.

It has an undeniable effect of lifting up, every time and in every circumstance.

Our world is a human view of God’s world.

Every time we get a glimpse of a higher, kinder, more compassionate and inclusive way to live, we are living more in God’s world.

The Dali Lama clarified that every religion teaches, love, compassion, tolerance, unity, peace, kindness, and that any one who commits violence removes himself from that religion.

According to a wonderful blog about preschoolers, children have an innate sense and practice of morality.

It has to be taught out of them.

Then it has to be retaught.

We can always come back to truth.

We can always live a kinder, more compassionate life.

We can do the little things which bring us back into conformity with God’s Law of Love for all His creation.

We can live according to the highest, most inclusive teachings of all religions.

We can create a spiritual life-practice for ourselves, and see it reflected in more community.

We all have the same goals, to live well.

Of course, we do not have to take something away from someone else in order to do this.

We each have our own inner and infinite individual resources which contribute harmoniously to the whole.

The Infinite Universe is where we live every time we embrace God’s Law.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.sharedglobalvision.blogspot.com

Celebrate Sanity - Downsize

In 2013, we retired and moved to a tiny house in the woods.

I had been downsizing and packing up the house for several years.

The process involved going through the house and packing up and releasing (giving away) whatever we were not using or no longer needed.

Six months later I did it again.

And another six months later, I repeated the process.

We ended up with several empty rooms in our 2800 square foot, four bedroom, two bath, two-car garage suburban house.

My husband measured the actual space we were living in at 650 square feet.  This included a large kitchen and very large master bathroom.

Our tiny house is a 12 x 20 camping cabin, 240 square feet minus the sixteen square feet of porch and plus the sixty-four square feet of loft/studio.

Even with the downsizing, we moved enough stuff to fill three 10 x 25 warehouses.

Then we got it down to one warehouse.

Then we bought a studio/shop space to use the materials which we were still storing.

This is ideal for us until we can get solar and wind energy and drill a well and build a studio/shop in the woods.

The downsizing has been very freeing.

We no longer have anything we don’t want to work with, only what we truly love.

As creatives, that is pretty much all we care about doing.

No TV, some radio, definitely computer.

Everything else is hands-on creativity.

My husband is building a woodshop for himself.

I am installed with weaving, spinning, knitting, quilting, and music reading readiness production.

We live in the woods and go to work in town where there is electricity and water.

It is really close to our ideal life.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.pebblesofpeace.blogspot.com

My Miracle of Feeling Happy

I noticed I was just feeling happy today.

After thinking about it, I tried to figure out why.

I couldn’t think of any particular reason, so I asked my husband.

He said I was was happy because I was not unhappy.

This is so great.

I am realizing that being happy is a state of normality.

It is actually what a person normally is.

We are created to live in a state of happiness.

If something happens, it can create temporary unhappiness.

But a return to normality is a return to a normal state of happiness.

The attitudes around me as as a very young child taught me to think in certain negative ways about myself.

It created a very challenging life.

But I have been learning over several adult years how to think of myself differently, and that is producing a different result.

A happy result.

I can live a happy life, and I now know how to create that for myself.

Join me.

Let’s do this.

And, please ask me for help if you need it.

I have received help from so many authors, workshops, quotes of the day, and friends.

© 2016 Kathryn Hardage

www.lovedcherishedadored.blogspot.com