Healing with Art... and Love.

If tomorrow never came, would you be proud of the last thing you said to each person you love?

If "someday" was only "now", would you do everything you've always put off?

If you knew you had a choice about what kind of life you could be living, would you choose different?

If you knew failure is impossible, what would you do?

If it were true that everyone you meet is you in another body, how would you treat them?

If love was the true currency of the Universe and the more you gave away the more you received, how would you spend it?

If fear were the biggest illusion and the greatest lie of all time, how would you choose to live your life?

If the Universe always supported a life lived towards achieving dreams, how big would you dream?

—
Jackson Kiddard

My friend, Amanda, had this qouted on her website.  I highly recommend it:  "Kind Over Matter: Touching the World with kindness, inspiration, gentleness and love."  Sign up and just her newsletter in your emailbox will lift your day.  She knows all about healing.  She's all about nurturing and creating a space for love.

http://www.kindovermatter.com/2012/02/if-you-knew-failure-is-impossible-what.html?utm_source=Kind+Over+Matter%27s+RSS+E-mail+List&utm_campaign=61b34a7d40-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email

I have been remiss.  I haven't nurtured my own dream of "Whole-Hearted Art."  I haven't provided you with as many links to all the wonderful sites and artists who inspire me and keep me going every day.   That's changing today!  I'm going to let you know all the wonderful sites I visit daily!  

I'd also like to write about a very touchy subject today:  criticism.  We are all so sensitive.  Where does criticism fit into art, healing and life!?  I believe there has to be a platform for criticism if we are to grow.  We need to be able to see our own mistakes, and, face it, that isn't something most of us are very good at!  I'm much better at seeing the mistakes of others.  And, when is a "mistake" a mistake... we called them "happy accidents" in college... when a color got spilled or a page torn, we learned to make lemonade from lemons, please forgive the mixed metaphor (it's ok, I'm a mixed media artist, lol!).  Mistakes are times when maybe a different composition choice would have strengthened a work of art.  My college professor was brutal, never minced his words (nor his metaphors;-o), and I always came away having learned something.  

But, when it comes to healing through art... maybe the healing goal is more important.  Maybe one needs to feel safer for longer before criticism is applied.  I don't think anyone ever knows if NOW is the right time for criticism.  In Real Love terms, honesty is required if someone feels that the hearer is capable of hearing it and the speaker is capable of saying it lovingly.  And hindsight is 20/20.  Sometimes we don't know until the words leave our mouths, or much later, after the response has dissipated, if "it" was the right thing to say or not.  I like a quote I read earlier (and now I can't find it).  Something to the effect that we might be happier if we consider everyone we meet as ourselves.  I'm always meeting myself.  Another variation of the Golden Rule.  

So, how does one heal through art?  Much damage is done to us as children when we aren't nurtured.  Most of us remember at least one pain(t)ful moment when someone didn't look at something we had created and scoop us up in loving arms, heaping praises on our creation and on us.  It is healing to create, knowing there will be no criticism... pouring one's mind, soul, heart and spirit onto the canvas with the paint... and then dancing circles around the canvas giggling at the freedom and de-light!  These delights will allow us to replace the old experiences with new ones, with evidence we are loved and utterly, and delightfully loveable!  

I've been blessed lately to hear words that I've always longed to hear:  "You are precious."  "You are of infinite and incredible worth."  There is a growing community of Real Love people (www.reallove.com) who are all learning to be loving, and loving each other.  I listen in and participate on conference calls daily and nightly where I get to hear calm, nurturing, loving voices, accepting each other, giving each other what we are all starving for:  Real Love.  Hope you will join us.  Go to http://www.reallove.com/conferencecalls.asp for the schedule of calls, it's free.  It'll make a huge difference in your life.  Promise.

Some other sites visited and loved today:  

http://catherineparkinson.blogspot.com/
http://onemotheratatime.blogspot.com/
http://diondior.blogspot.com/
www.jessicaswift.com
http://www.etsy.com/shop/artsyville