July 2007

To Live and Truly Love

Happy Fourth of July! This last month I have been thinking a lot about the idea that what we do for others is eternally lasting while what we do for ourselves can be quite transient. I currently have three projects "on" my desk, all of which I'm doing for someone else. One I'm being paid for, one is a trade, and the third is for a friend. Each is something new I am learning, the first and third particularly are way beyond what I have done before. It's been an extraordinary experience to work on them all, to learn and grow To do more than I ever thought I could. More importanly, to spend my life bettering the lives of others. While working on them, I came across a prayer, "Lord, may I be a blessing to someone today." Since reading that, it has become my prayer. May my life indeed be a blessing to someone else every day that I live.

The funny thing about giving to someone else is that you seem to get even more back in return than what you give. If you are working on making a gift for someone, the pleasure and joy you can get from doing that is amazing. The thoughts surrounding that gift can bring warmth and love to the coldest of your days and can make the brightest of days even brighter. And when you are helping someone figure something out, knowing their way is easier because you took the time to lend a hand fills you up with joy. To make another’s load a little lighter, a little more cheerful and bright is so vital to who we are. It touches that deep core in us that tells us we are not born for ourselves alone. We are here as a community. That is something I really like about Judaism, that we are a community and the life force in one flows right into another. Things we do for another flows into us and things we do for ourselves flows into another. For example, I took the photographs below for myself because I love photography. But you can look at them and enjoy the pictures for yourself. We are not as cut off from each other as we seem. We are all connected in an all-encompassing breath of life. The trees share the life we do, the flowers bloom in their time just as we bloom in ours.

In a Jewish Prayer Book, there is a reading that says the river is our brother and we are to treat it as our brother. It also says the ground beneath our feet is the ashes of our ancestors. If we spit upon the earth, we spit upon ourselves. I believe there is a deeper collective consciousness than our individual minds can grasp. It binds each of us together, it binds us to the earth. And perhaps we are each a manifestation of that consciousness and it is not just something that holds us together, it is what we are made of. The more I have thought about this idea, the deeper I have come to the realization this collective conscious, what binds us together, is God. His love is what is flowing through us one into another and it is Him we are each an expression of. Everything that is done, is done in Him. I would ask you to think about what this means for you. What does it mean to be so integrally connected to one another and the trail on which we walk? And how can we be more aware of it? I'll close with this thought, "Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.” Let God teach us what it means to live and truly love-- together.

News

On August 4th, 2007, I will have a booth at a craft fair at First Baptist Church

in Salem, Oregon along with two friends who will be selling cards and jewelry.

More information soon to come. Come check it out!

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I am working on a new product line of photography and art.

Ideas I have had so far is to frame and matt them, put them on cards, or make a calendar.

If you have any ideas of ways I could use them, let me know!

Last Updated: 12/30/2011