Inspiring...Live the Moment...Live Higher!

When I saw this on Facebook...had to grab its embed code from YouTube and put it on my blog.  The message is that of God's love...the love of the Father, like the father you will see here...but also knowing as a former athlete the training that begins first with a vision.  Wanting something so dear and living as though so necessary.

As an artist...an instructor not only of adults in painter's workshops, but as a teacher in public schools it seems more and more in this age that less and less is grasped of one's significance, uniqueness and call to greatness.

I have summed up often a good percentage of young people today having come to the conclusion that if a thing is too difficult, too hard...then it is a sign of what is not meant to be.  I believe more and more what it takes to develop one's body for sport, or one's patience and talents for creative things like the arts is coming to be misunderstood and missed.  Wanting something badly enough...willingly sacrificing and working hard enough.

Imagine this attitude of something too difficult, a "sign of what is not meant to be" had it occurred in Michael Jordan's day...undoubtedly history's most magnificent marvelous basketball player of all time.  His last year with the Chicago Bulls...he got something like $48 million dollars...PLUS about that same amount from endorsements of NIKE shoes...

Yet...as I like to tell young people, he was cut his sophomore year in high school try outs for not being good enough.  Imagine, if he had taken that as a sign of what was meant to be or not!

Consider his career stats- 

Six-time NBA champion (1991-93, 1996-98); MVP (1988, '91, '92, '96, '98); 10-time All-NBA First Team (1987-93, 1996-98) etc.

Yet, nobody remembers (or cares) about the number of times he failed, just what he achieved...and then, says this by Michael himself-

"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career, I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over in my life. And that's why I succeed!" - Michael Jordan

As a painter, as a teacher...I am inspired by words of wisdom from people of the past.  I save a document to my computer and add frequently to it to reflect and muse on...

A painter, the prime minister of England during the Battle of Britain...
In a famous speech addressing his public at the height of Nazi Germany's threat, this one paragraph especially is poignant-

"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." - Winston Churchill, Prime Minister- Great Britain


...and again, as a painter something I oft quote to others and myself coming from Churchill-

"Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm!"

I am a believer, I make no apology or express shame in this day of secularism and confusion on what is true or not true...and the video touches me for reasons I'm sure its videographer maker intends...but, as a painter, a teacher...that seeks to motivate myself and others do take that message in as well!

In this vast universe...with all the billions of dollars spent, all the scientific speculation and desire to know more...our explorations having proving at best thus far, that we are unique and uniquely alone as living beings.  Life...is amazing.  Miraculous.  A gift...and nothing, not even the most mundane small happening goes by as insignificant.  Next time you are out painting...look around and take note not that you simply are observing a scene, but aware of YOURSELF observing a scene.  Consider where else in all the universe as such a time as that moment is a living being opening up a tube of paint to squeeze out on a palette?

Oh sure...maybe someone in this world might be painting...but the universe is so vast and its significance should not be lost.  Think on it...then celebrate no matter the outcome (good or bad painting), and see your painting as a very practical very real sense of perhaps worship, or celebration.  The DEAD...do not paint...and unfortunately there are many around us dead to appreciating they possess life and moments everyday to explore what that might well mean and lead to!