It All Depends Where You Are.

I promise not to bore you with running but I have to share this with you. Enjoying so much being back on the trail I decided to buy a running magazine. There was an article in it about the best 10 half marathons in the UK. They decided to describe them under three headings. What was good about it, where it was and lastly its downsides. To be expected most of them were in the south of England, but there were two listed from Scotland. The downsides of all the others were small things, like how tough it was. The two from Scotland had the same downside. They were a bit inaccessible and a long travel if you lived in the south of England. I could not believe so instantly penned a letter to them to tell them that from where I stood Bristol was exactly the same, a long way from Scotland.
There is a similar story of a Prime Minister, who shall remain nameless, but he has been in the news a lot recently,

The Minister travelled for days by train and car and boat to one of the furthest islands in Scotland As he surveyed the bleak but inspiring landscape, he turned to a local villager and said: "You're very remote here, aren't you?" She responded: "Remote from what?"

We who have gardens, and I am aware many of you have, can so easily become obsessed with weeds, especially if they are in your lawn. A man who took great pride in his lawn found himself with a large crop of dandelions. He tried every method he knew to get rid of them. Still they plagued him.

Finally he wrote to the Department of Agriculture. He enumerated all the things he had tried and closed his letter with the question: "What shall I do now?"

In due course, the reply came: "We suggest you learn to love them."

Every single thing that happens to us in life always has more than one perspective. Nobody should know that more than the artist. It all depends which perspective we choose to take. I already know that if and when Susan reads this morning she is going to fully agree. How do I know that? Because she is a lady that is so upbeat about life she cannot help telling us to always look for the good in everything, and she is so right.

I have written so many of these blogs now I cannot remember if I have told you the old Native American tale of the two wolves. Whether I have or not it is worthy today of hearing one more time.

There was an old American Native Chief who was talking to his grandson. He told him, "I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one."

The grandson asked him, "Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?"

The grandfather answered: "The one I feed."

So which wolf will you chose to feed. I will try my very best to feed the good one but I know I must always be on guard because the other one has a crafty knack of slipping in there and grabbing my attention.

Beware of hungry wolves

Have a great day.

This Blog is linked to my other. Jackie

Mistakes and Putting Them to Use

I suppose the tale I am about to tell in today’s open and free culture may seem tame but when it happened this was far from the case. I came out of a church building fairly late one evening. Standing at the bus stop opposite was a middle aged couple much under the influence of alcohol. They were in fact waiting for a bus that was never going to come, the last one had long gone. At this time I was giving serious consideration to putting my head down and trying to get myself into college as and was always eager and willing to help others. If I was going to be a minister then I had better start practising. I got the couple into the car, not mine might I add, but a friend. We got them round to the address the man had given us. On arrival he asked if I would help him get her into the house. I did that but then he wanted me to help get her into bed. Well I did this with as much decorum as was possible. He got in beside her I put out the lights and locked his door and put the keys back through his letter box.


The next day I popped round to see if all was okay with them. They did not know each other. They had in fact only met a short time before I came out of the church building.

Was this a mistake? Who knows I never hung around long enough to ever find out.

I read a letter in an art magazine where somebody was reflecting on his art master and his insistence on drawing and getting it right. He stated, “Nobody was allowed to touch paint until they could draw.” For those who could draw, wonderful they got to move on to paint for others art for the rest of their life was a dead thing. I had an art teacher who made the same mistake and so it is only recently I came back to art.

We all make mistakes and the artist is no different from anybody else. The wrong colour, the wrong mix, the perspective is all wrong, one kind of gaffe or another. For so many starting out in art these mistakes can be seen as a disaster, they see it as a conformation that they are no good at art. The true artist accepts it as a part of what happens to the artist and learns from the mistake. They note it away and make sure they do not make the same mistake again. If it does happen again then they feel that the lesson has not yet been learned and they start again.

Everyday for the artist is a learning experience. It should be shared with others. I have set myself the task that in the coming year I will open the door to art for at least three people who say to me, “I would love to be able to be an artist, but I am just hopeless.” I will do not to become a tutor or as another source of income but simply to inspire.

As you can see from the painting at the start of this blog,I still cannot draw. That does not mean I did not get a great deal of pleasure in the production of this "picture". I am also aware that it has brought pleasure to many others. Would it be a mistake to show others the error of my ways?