Weekly Rambling

All the paintings from Penticton en Plein Air are framed and hung at the Penticton Art Gallery. They will be auctioned off on July 7th at the 34th annual Starry Starry Night to be held at the Lakeside Resort. Come out to support this great regional facility and maybe bid on some art. A few examples below.








This week I've been considering time prioritization and how the perceived urgencies of others can sidetrack us from our goal or calling. No matter what we are endeavouring to accomplish external demands can undermine our "mission" like persistent beavers gnawing on a brookside aspen. How to stay the course? Most of these distractions are good and worthy but can you cull the bitter from the sweet?
Here's an idea; find some solitude and list the important things in your life in order of importance. Next accept the reality that you cannot realize all you've compiled and jettison each item starting from the bottom until you land on a realistically achievable list. We have to be accountable to ourselves to protect these essentials so when an outside demand jeopardizes them we have a benchmark to defend.
Narcissism isn't the objective because its only by serving others that we can realize our calling but we need to recognize the value of our uniqueness and the need to refine our God given talents into something precious that blesses our fellow humans and our Creator.

"To get all there is out of living, we must employ our time wisely, never being in too much of a hurry to stop and sip life, but never loosing our sense of the enormous value of a minute. "(Bob Updegraff.)

Or my favorite quote that I'd tattoo over my heart if I was needle-friendly by that sage T-Bone Burnett, "The frightening thing isn't dying, The frightening thing isn't living."

I built a platform for my portrait sitters so will be standing to paint this week-looking forward to it. Have a great one.