COLD RAINY NIGHT IN DALLAS
Contemporary Art Cityscape Rain Daily Painting Art By Morgan and Laurie Pace
18 x 24 inches THICK OIL PAINT
SOLD
Contact to Purchase: Laurie
Contemporary Art Cityscape Rain Daily Painting Art By Morgan and Laurie Pace
18 x 24 inches THICK OIL PAINT
SOLD
Contact to Purchase: Laurie
This is a mother/son painting. He loves working with color as you can see! He also is trying to pay his rent and feed his dog. At least his priorities are good! We worked on this painting together in the studio a few weeks ago.
JOY JOY JOY JOY
Do you know anyone that does not want joy in their lives? Unless it is Christmas or you read the Oprah magazine there is not much use of the word JOY in our language from day to day. Why does it seem there is not enough joy in our lives?
The third candle we light today is the Joy Candle. We add this to Hope and Peace.
Yesterday I was with a friend, Deborah, driving across north Texas from visiting Stacey and Larry. We were talking deeply, as we normally do, about life and where we are in life in our fifties. Deborah lost her first husband in a freak hospital incident where they allowed him to bleed to death slowly without care. She said she spent that next year or two drifting on a cloud trying to get grounded again. She was in her early forties when James died. I remember it well. It shook all of our worlds. She mentioned in the car yesterday, while going through that time of regrouping, she was reading a book about finding joy and one of the exercises suggested you look back to age 5-8 and see what made you happy then. What did you LOVE doing? My answer came swiftly. I loved to read. I loved going to the library and coming home and reading my books. What brought you joy back then? Can you do it now? Send me your comment and share what brought you simple joy as a child.
Over our life time we are primed to think we will be happy when we : make lots of money, buy the perfect house/home, find the love of our life. OR, maybe when we have a baby, buy some new furniture for that house, or buy that new car. It is a fact we tend to expect instant gratification. I know my kids do. I am part of the dying generation that works ourselves sick. Deborah and I visited about that yesterday too. We never take time to do the things that might bring us joy because we are too responsible for OTHERS in our lives. We neglect caring for ourselves and allowing ourselves time for Joy.
Some people think they find joy through alcohol or drugs, but from experience of having it in the family I can promise you it only brings heartache and pain to that person and to everyone that cares about that person. True Joy? I think not. If they would face the pain in their lives and confront it, they would find true joy and release from the pain. As a family member, I had to learn to let go of them because I cannot confront their demons or fix their life, only they can. Great Joy awaits them when they do work through the pain that drives them to drink.
How do you stop and figure out what brings you joy? Not just what you think brings you joy, but what really brings you joy?
First joy does not come as a result of what you physically do. If you find that perfect house and buy it, that is not joy. If you find that perfect spouse and marry, that is not joy. If you have a baby, that is not joy. If I read a book that is not joy. Lets think of joy as a "state of being" that exists in your heart when you are open to learn and when you take good loving care of yourself.
As a gift of the spirit, joy is like love and truth, they can only enter your heart and your soul when you are open to receive them. Joy is found when you successfully open yourself to the feelings of exuberance that evolves only after you have opened yourself to feeling your pain, living through your pain, learning from your pain and moving forward through the pain.
When you distract yourself and protect yourself from feeling hurt, you close yourself off from feeling everything. When you are closed off you cannot have pain or joy, or love or truth. God gave these to us as gifts. Open yourself up today to joy. Find that inner child and remember back to age 5-8 when you did not have the worries that face you today. Attend to your wants and needs today FIRST over others. Learn to say No and mean it. Find safety in your life and connect back to this simple way of existing without all the barriers, walls and detours you place on yourself to make it through each day.
Life is worth living and it can be joyful. Once you glimpse it and experience it you will find that as you leave that "comfort zone" you exist in, and you will embrace a simpler way of life filled with joy.
Loving God, we thank You for the joy You bring to us each day. May we find the courage to open our hearts and receive this joy. Through the gift of the simple birth of Your Son we have the joy in living as Your children. Help us to remember we are safe as Your children in Your care and walk with us through the pain in our lives so we are open to embrace the true joy that awaits each of us. Help us to prepare our hearts for these gracious gift and the celebration of the birth of Your Son, Jesus Christ. We ask in the name of the One born in Bethlehem. Amen.
Hope, Peace, Joy and Abundance,
Laurie
" In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Luke 1:26-28
The third candle we light today is the Joy Candle. We add this to Hope and Peace.
Yesterday I was with a friend, Deborah, driving across north Texas from visiting Stacey and Larry. We were talking deeply, as we normally do, about life and where we are in life in our fifties. Deborah lost her first husband in a freak hospital incident where they allowed him to bleed to death slowly without care. She said she spent that next year or two drifting on a cloud trying to get grounded again. She was in her early forties when James died. I remember it well. It shook all of our worlds. She mentioned in the car yesterday, while going through that time of regrouping, she was reading a book about finding joy and one of the exercises suggested you look back to age 5-8 and see what made you happy then. What did you LOVE doing? My answer came swiftly. I loved to read. I loved going to the library and coming home and reading my books. What brought you joy back then? Can you do it now? Send me your comment and share what brought you simple joy as a child.
Over our life time we are primed to think we will be happy when we : make lots of money, buy the perfect house/home, find the love of our life. OR, maybe when we have a baby, buy some new furniture for that house, or buy that new car. It is a fact we tend to expect instant gratification. I know my kids do. I am part of the dying generation that works ourselves sick. Deborah and I visited about that yesterday too. We never take time to do the things that might bring us joy because we are too responsible for OTHERS in our lives. We neglect caring for ourselves and allowing ourselves time for Joy.
Some people think they find joy through alcohol or drugs, but from experience of having it in the family I can promise you it only brings heartache and pain to that person and to everyone that cares about that person. True Joy? I think not. If they would face the pain in their lives and confront it, they would find true joy and release from the pain. As a family member, I had to learn to let go of them because I cannot confront their demons or fix their life, only they can. Great Joy awaits them when they do work through the pain that drives them to drink.
How do you stop and figure out what brings you joy? Not just what you think brings you joy, but what really brings you joy?
First joy does not come as a result of what you physically do. If you find that perfect house and buy it, that is not joy. If you find that perfect spouse and marry, that is not joy. If you have a baby, that is not joy. If I read a book that is not joy. Lets think of joy as a "state of being" that exists in your heart when you are open to learn and when you take good loving care of yourself.
As a gift of the spirit, joy is like love and truth, they can only enter your heart and your soul when you are open to receive them. Joy is found when you successfully open yourself to the feelings of exuberance that evolves only after you have opened yourself to feeling your pain, living through your pain, learning from your pain and moving forward through the pain.
When you distract yourself and protect yourself from feeling hurt, you close yourself off from feeling everything. When you are closed off you cannot have pain or joy, or love or truth. God gave these to us as gifts. Open yourself up today to joy. Find that inner child and remember back to age 5-8 when you did not have the worries that face you today. Attend to your wants and needs today FIRST over others. Learn to say No and mean it. Find safety in your life and connect back to this simple way of existing without all the barriers, walls and detours you place on yourself to make it through each day.
Life is worth living and it can be joyful. Once you glimpse it and experience it you will find that as you leave that "comfort zone" you exist in, and you will embrace a simpler way of life filled with joy.
Loving God, we thank You for the joy You bring to us each day. May we find the courage to open our hearts and receive this joy. Through the gift of the simple birth of Your Son we have the joy in living as Your children. Help us to remember we are safe as Your children in Your care and walk with us through the pain in our lives so we are open to embrace the true joy that awaits each of us. Help us to prepare our hearts for these gracious gift and the celebration of the birth of Your Son, Jesus Christ. We ask in the name of the One born in Bethlehem. Amen.
Hope, Peace, Joy and Abundance,
Laurie
" In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Luke 1:26-28
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