Tag: life lessons

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When Too Much is Coming Down the Pipes

Covid, variants, residential school tragedy and trauma, heat dome suffering and deaths, fires, smoke, unmarked anniversary’s

It’s time to look for the beauty again.

Ten Simple Things I’m Grateful For Right Now:

Getting To The Heart of The Matter

1. My people. Every single one of you, and all of the love you continuously share with me.

2. Air fans. Workhorses that run as long as there is electricity.

3. Electricity

4. Toothbrushes. Clean teeth help to immediately improve my morning attitude.

5. Cold, clean tap water. Hot is nice, too.

6. Windows that open and close. Options are such a privilege!

7. A clean, crisp, high quality white sheet or two. Pure pleasure.

8. A gentle summer rain. I enjoy getting caught outside in one.

9. Mobility. My legs are strong.

10. Garden fresh produce. There’s nothing more nourishing.

What’s on you right now list?

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Managing our Responses to Pandemic

Looking For Beauty….

Change is difficult enough to handle when we are completely prepared, but when we aren’t, we can feel out of control. We can experience grief for what we’ve lost. We can yearn for what we had and even try to replicate what we had. We didn’t expect Covid19. We didn’t expect a pandemic. We are all experiencing unexpected changes.

Here are some ideas for managing a range of emotions common during such a time.

1. A mantra for when sleep is difficult. “I am calm and relaxed.” Try replacing those damned fuzzy jumping sheep with those simple words.

2. When you are feeling stress or panic. First recognize the feelings by telling yourself, I am experiencing stress/panic. Second remind yourself that you can relax by thinking of a time you have experienced calm…picture that time in your mind. Third tell yourself that this emotion is a normal human emotion in this situation. Fourth tell yourself that everything is going to work out one way or another. ( Patting your body gently from head to toe while you run through this sequence can also help. )

3. When you feel like crying be strong and cry. That’s right cry. Let it out. Keeping those tears in are not a sign of strength. Be brave and let the tears out. It is our bodies way of cleansing.

4. When you are feeling hopeless. Pray. Lift your chin up, eyes to the sky, if there’s sunshine, stand in it. Pray. I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. I am so grateful for _______. I am open to receiving. Build on this structure in any way you want. Repetition is good!

5. When you are feeling a lack of purpose or self. Remember the virus has imposed a time of stillness on many of us. Stillness can be especially difficult for previously very busy people. Culturally, there is belief that still people are lazy, worthless. Remind yourself that by birthright, you are worthy. Remind yourself that stillness is hard work. Your work can be seen around the world in clearer sky’s and animals returning to places they haven’t been. You work of stillness is creating a healthier planet. If you have extra, making helping those without enough your side gig.

6. When you are feeling fearful about basic needs. Seek help. Help can be very hard and humbling to ask for, but help is a wonderful relief to receive. Governments and community organizations have made money and supports available to those who have lost jobs or need food and housing due to covid19. Ask for help.

7. When you are experiencing cabin fever. Make visual calls to check in on your loved ones. Go for a walk and mind your physical distancing. Sit out on your balcony and enjoy the fresh air. Put on you pandemic playlist and dance like no one is watching.

8. When you are feeling unmotivated and empty. Introduce a daily routine. Make it yours and be willing to tweak it as we move through this world event.

9. When you are feeling angry. Try not to lash out. We are all learning how to do pandemic as we are doing pandemic. We are going to make mistakes. No blaming. No shaming. Just learn from each experience and move forward. Try giving yourself some space from what or who you are feeling angry with.

Keep yourself safe. If you are a caregiver, keep those you care for safe. Concern yourself with following protocols, and making brave decisions and moving you and those you love safely to the other side of this. Let every day be a new day to see beauty in. Keep looking for those one thousand things to be thankful for beginning with every new dawn. We’ve got this.

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Opportunities and Collecting Art

  I’m number 32, as seen in the art edition; Home and Garden Magazine UK.  When a ‘magical’ opportunity shows up in your life, what is your first reaction? For me, this is what seems to happen: 1. Joyful surprise and excitement. 2. I check it out quickly but thoroughly. Hello, Nancy Drew! These scammy days, everything needs a thorough checking out. 3. I pay attention to the possible winning details of the offering and then weigh those against what I’ve been thinking, wondering, wanting and, of course my financial means. 4. I say yes when everything lines up, without too much delay. 5. I wait in joyful gratitude without second guessing my decision because I did the due diligence groundwork and because I believe every ‘yes’ to opportunity opens my world just a little wider! I’m sharing this because, I believe the world is a much better place than it’s being ‘painted’ of late. Yes, there are huge, maybe even insurmountable problems, and yes there is pain, but the goodness and love I have seen in the people I’ve met in every place I’ve ever travelled to, and the beauty I can find in even the blandest of vistas, makes me think the lens we are living our lives through needs a thorough cleaning. The ‘human condition’ allows us to chose our ‘side of the sword’. What side have you chosen? I used to think we had doomed ourselves and most other species. It hurt my soul. It hurt my psyche. Thankfully, I was provided the opportunity to polish and shine my lens. Now, I completely understand Dostoevsky’s prophesy, a prophesy that has long intrigued me, spoken by the prince in The Idiot. “beauty will save the world” So ….be beautiful… love. Be loved. Beloved. Open to magical opportunities and say yes when you’ve done your due diligence. Buy art. Collect art. Train your eye. poppies Without art, without that trained eye, there is much less beauty available to you in the world. And, you are surrounded by it!    

If you’d like to add a piece of my art to your collection, developed or developing, email me, Sherri Jean McCulloch, at roxgroandmink@gmail.com

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Thrive

I’m very excited to announce… my art, artcards, calendars, and other artful items will be with me at Thrive Festival at Silverside Farm in Cobble Hill August 26, 2018. Come visit me there and pick up some tips for how you can ‘Thrive’ along with something special for yourself.

IMG_1216.JPG thrive

It’s going to be a great day of music, sun, speakers, and inspiration.

 

Every morning I offer up a little prayer for forgiveness, gratitude, and open heartedness. (Its available on the blog) Often I’ll ask what is needed from me that day and I’m usually met with a little thought that I have come to know as wisdom from the universe.

When I find myself awakened at night, repeating my prayer through allows me to find sleep again. Essentially, instead of counting sheep I’m counting my blessings.

This is a little practice that I have created for myself based on seeking, reading, finding, trying, sifting sorting and finally, elimination. It’s a simple practice among others I utilize that helps me to thrive.

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Joy- Available 22 1/2″ by 30″ Acrylic on Paper

Can you name the practices you engage in to maintain your best self?

Have you even thought about what your best self feels like?

I used to think I was my best self when I was exhausted…

when I’d ‘given it everything I got’ … to work and family

when I’d ‘given 110%’ … to others

when I’d ‘sucked it up’ … and pushed beyond my limits for the team

when I ‘put it behind me and kept moving forward’…for the wellbeing of others

Those mantras, the ones we are sold to motivate us to produce more and more and more… they put ‘my best self’ in harms way.

What are the mantras you have adopted to drive yourself to exhaustion?

I now know that my best self feels light, airy, spacious, as well as loving.  My best self is well rested, playful, golden! My best self knows that boundaries are not just okay, but in fact, a necessity.

… Come visit me at Thrive and ask for your free gift!

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The Quarry – Available 20″ by 26″ Acrylic on Paper

 

 

 

 

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10 Ways To Be Happier With Your Decisions

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‘Essoyes’        Acrylic on Vintage French Linen – unframed –    27 1/2 ” by 26 1/2″

  1. Say Yes While Keeping No In Mind – You said yes to the apple but it doesn’t mean you said yes to the core. You said yes to folding laundry but it doesn’t mean you have to waste you time yessing on exactly matching corners. You said yes to dinner and a movie…you get my drift.
  2. Say Let Me Think About It – If there is time before you have to decide and you are honestly considering a yes, actually thinking about it can provide clarity to both you and the other party. This gives you time to consider your boundaries and what aspects of the yes could become nos. Communicating your boundaries clearly can even alliviate the need for no. Be careful though, this is also a stall and avoidance tactic. Beginning with an “I am interested, let me think about it.” will be better received, especially if you follow up.
  3. Make The Decision Without Expectations – I call these heart decisions because they are always YES and nothing can get in the way of them. These ones  take you to places that you’ve never imagined and those you have dreamed of. Saying yes like this can never leave you disappointed.
  4. Make the Decision Whole Heartedly – Never second guess it. When your head goes there, and it might, go right back to why the yes or no was right for you in that moment.
  5. Say No With Yes In Mind – This is all about the timing. Sometimes it has to be no in that moment and you may feel some regrets as a result. That’s okay. Reminding yourself that a yes could come at a later time helps to create calm. You are not closing the door forever.
  6. Body Knows -This is a resounding, intuitive, boundary decision that is always a NO. You feel it in every cell of your being before your head tries to trick you into saying you should because. This is not the same thing as the mind saying no because of fear or anxiety. If you can’t tell the difference, begin paying attention to how the back of your knees feel in fear or anxiousness. It’s usually nothing. It’s usually all gut and chest.  In a body knows situation even the backs of your knees will tingle. Listen to the backs of your knees. Listen to the body. Say the NO. Thank the body for it’s wisdom. Never second guess this.
  7. Systems Thinking – Even when we think we’ve made a bad decision, we can find happiness in it. Thinking beyond yourself to see how it affects others will usually reveal some compassionate goodness. Every decision affects more than just you. Thinking widely about the others touched by it will always give you a reason to smile and a reason to forgive yourself and move forward.
  8. Mindfulness – A decision is always made in the past. Shrug it off. Let it go. You have now. Breathe.
  9. Passionate Decisions – You have to have tenacity for these; the tenacity that comes from big dreams and relentless passion and often, love. Think crazy glue. Wear it, pronounce it, believe it, carry it, stand by it, sell it. Never sway from it…until you get ‘there’ and only you know where ‘there’ is. When you make a passionate decision, and you call it that, everyone will forgive your pitbull like grip on reality so you can really dive into it. Never regret these decisions; they happen to help us learn something.
  10. Don’t Waffle – When you do this repeatedly it makes you feel bad inside and it makes you appear untrustworthy if others know about it. Nobody wants that. Say yes or say no and stick to it. Kick your doubts to the curb!

Good luck with this everybody! Let me know if it helps.

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An Art Residency in France

Today I’ve been working on what will likely be the last painting I create at my Art Residency at Chateau Orquevaux. As I painted, the last in what has become a connected series, I began to examine why it was important for me to do such a thing. Here they are, in order of importance for me.

1. Connection

I’ve been painting in relative isolation for the past years, in my home studio, and loving it. I realize now that I applied for the residency not just for the place to paint but for connection with like minded people. I love the artists I’ve met; they are my extended family. We share ideas, philosophies, dreams, and aspirations easily and without judgement. We see the world as possibility in colour, shape, line, texture and design. Picasso’s wordless book of bridesmaids has a storyline we can interpret easily together. Between us, there is only support and sharing, competition just isn’t a thing here. We laugh together when we could be crying and we cry together when we could be laughing. Everyone here is whole and rich and perfect because that’s what we notice about each other first and foremost. We just generally get each other.

Having a tribe, a tribe that I’ve lived communally with for a month, that I’ve shared meals and wine with and created with, who come from all over the world, who are a variety of ages, who have distinctly different styles and experiences, who came with the same awe and excitement I came with, who have the same reverence for art and creating, well, that’s as golden as it gets in the work world. And yes, making art, creating, is work. Important work. Valuable work. The French get that.  Connection is belonging.

2. Learning


I’ve loved the studio spaces just above the bedrooms, the rhythm of each artist’s working days, and the chats about creations and processes when studio doors are open. Learning is one of my drivers. When I’m learning, I feel alive. Yesterday, I found out about the brute art movement in broken English. My heart was filling up as I listened. I’d already viewed the exhibit. I knew how it made me feel. Yes, I feel art. At lunch today, while articulating how my painting morning was going, I generally like to paint uninterrupted from 9:00-2:00, I understood how much more exhausting it is for me to paint a series than it is to paint completely intuitively. Intentional painting, for me is less enjoyable. My bucket gets filled when I feel free. April, a writer in residence, understood this feeling and expressed how she noticed it come up for her in her practice as well. Having an opportunity to discuss our inner observations really helped me to consider freedom as one of my basic human needs even beyond art.

3. Change


I have new rituals that I will integrate into my home practice. Eating breakfast, slowly, as well as drinking coffee every morning, is going to happen everyday even without the croissants. I will put more attention into line and into learning about the New York art scene and emerging artists. Opening my home to artist gatherings and work stays will be on my radar. A residency or two every year will become a regular part of who I am and what I do.

4. Joy

I always say, gratitude paves the road to joy. I feel it here x’s 10. This place, Orquevaux, is beautiful. Discovering it and each other; I am so grateful. This is magic and coincidence at its very best! Thank you Ziggy Attias, for your vision and your invitation.

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How I Paint

  1. I like Golden paints. Their rich colours and variety are ready to go. I always start with heavy bodied paint and keep the colour wheel in mind. No mud. Drying time between layers.
  2. I begin by just making marks to get what is inside of me out. Sometimes I begin with collage. Sometimes I begin with huge charcoal toned sticks. I don’t usually need music in the background if I’m expressing what’s in my body. ‘It’ wants out. My hands want to dance the canvas. I can do this for as many layers as I have angst or joy.
  3. Music, the kind I find soul soothing, comes in handy for this next step of intentional paint play. Still using heavy body paint. Still just mark making fun.
  4. Dry now, the canvas has some life to it. Texture, colour, shapes. Usually, a lot of life! Sometimes too much life. At this point, I sit with it for a bit and see what comes up. I might see/feel something right away but I’m not disappointed to have to put it aside for weeks or months. I trust that something will eventually emerge.
  5. I set the content free. This is the exciting part. Sometimes it’s related to the layers before but sometimes it’s not. I just never really know what will show up or what will withdraw from the work.
  6. I add high viscosity colours, glazes, and drips. More play!
  7.  Finishing touches…edges, sides, details, etc… are my least favourite part. I usually feel ‘done’ before the canvas is finished. For me, this finishing is the drudgery that must happen for the viewer’s sake and I don’t paint for the viewer. I paint because I have to; it’s a birthing process that creates space and well being. It’s beautiful, cyclical, and creative, and very much like how a bulb or tuber, tree or flower sends forth it’s seed.cropped-img_31021.jpg
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Gratitude Attitude

It’s one of my favourite Instagram tags. I choose my tags based on truths, not popularity. An every morning, every night moment of practicing gratitude attitude has been something I have practiced for the past three years. It helped lift me out of the mire my ‘superwoman’ life doused me in. it takes very little and it feels very good. In fact, it lights me up and calls for breath.

In one of my earlier posts I shared the mantra that works for me. To it, I add little details. For example this morning, I found myself expressing gratitude for my pup that was curled up next to me understanding everything I say, think and feel and trying her very best to meet my many needs, but especially, my need for love. I also expressed gratitude for my home. The birds were singing outside my window, my bed was feeling super comfy, and although the sun has been scare her, it is a comfortable temperature, just

perfect for getting into the garden.

When I steep in gratitude, I don’t find myself wanting for things. I have what I need and that leaves me in a state of calm grace. I do find myself attracting, things though. Things like warm smiles, conversations with strangers, good ideas, and more enough…be it a small unexpected check in the mail, a heart-shaped rock, or a rainbow on a walk with my dog.

This is also IMG_1842the attitude of the people I met in Bali. They were happy in place. Satisfied with the beauty of their tropical paradise. Through daily prayer and their Hindu traditions, they have found gratitude and satisfaction. Their way of being is good for earth, good for health, and
good for each other.

I urge you to make time for the daily gratitude attitude. Put it into your prayers or make it your prayers. Let life know what it is doing right for you so that it can continue to do it. Let appreciative inquiry shape everything you do. This one simple act will change you substantively.

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Every Moment Has a Lesson

This morning I awoke with one puffy eye and some knowing.

  1. I knew there was something missing from Tony Robbins’ definition of IMG_2057success. Doing what you want when you want where you want how you want sounded more like the petulance of a tweenaged child than sound advice. I wanted it doused in gratitude and love before it was given out.
  2. I knew that I needed to tell someone I trusted something I’d been holding before it dragged me down. The telling divided the weight in exactly half and made it bearable.
  3. I knew that I was NOT responsible nor meant to feel responsible for the words and action/inaction of another soul so when that stuff came my way, I put it back where it belonged.
  4. I knew it was okay to ask for some help and to give some help.
  5. I knew I could continue to forgive and rationalize pretty much anything but that it was okay to acknowledge my own boundaries and my, values, and my beliefs.
  6. I knew that the guy with the really big camera we saw on our walk was someone who knew what he was doing by the way he was listening to the trees, looking through them, and focusing all of his attention on the magic the forest held secret. He wasn’t just a guy with a really big camera, he was a sorcerer, manifestor, photographer, or whatever label you’d choose to apply.
  7. I knew that the beavers, two of them, that had shown up unexpectedly on a different walk belonging to a different person, were there to guide and show the way to that person and I did my best to help him see it.
  8. I knew that my friend was as right as she’d ever been; right to her very core when she said we were blessed to live where we do and that it was a sort of utopia. Having traveled some, I knew that most people could find that sentiment where they lived, and that if they did, Earth would be better off.
  9. I knew that Elon Musk was alright when I saw his picture of this quote in his feed; Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life. Picasso. I would still encourage him to spend time in the forest every day, too.
  10. I knew that a grateful person, a loving person, a caring and generous person, could walk in Tony Robbins’ quote with grace, but a greedy, seedy, self-serving person could make it ugly, ugly, ugly.
  11. I knew, as I walked in the woods and mulled all this over and chattered with my friend about our dogs and the nuances of our lives that my guiding quotes, the ones I continue to share with others will remain: Be the change you want to see in the world. Ghandi and Beauty will save the world. Dostoevsky

My eye is still puffy, despite antihistamine. I suspect the lesson is either that I can rest it a little today after I check my bed for a spider or that I should look out of my left eye when taking pictures or analyzing life.