The philosophy of painting a life story.

Past thoughts are like a work of art.   It is already painted, hung on the wall and viewed.  Our thoughts should be like this.  Already did that,  finished and moving on.  A painter knows it is difficult to go back and rework a painting.  Typically, once you finish and return to paint you have lost the “zone” you were in at the moment you were painting.  The likelihood of getting it back is slim.  When recalling thoughts of past love, loss,  and sad times, it is best to observe them like a painting.  Frame it and hang it.  Reworking those times in your head, honestly it just doesn’t work.  The painting is finished, like the past life experiences.

From my artist view point,  it’s time to move on and paint something new and fresh.  How about you?  Are you still reworking life’s tragedies?  Well stop it!   Today create a new composition.  You may not be an artist but you can create a new life story.

Saturday morning I became a student of a 16 year old who has five years of Chinese traditional painting under his belt.  I pulled out my new bamboo brush dipped it in ink and started painting.  He stopped me!  The line must show more emotion from thick to thin in the blades of grass.  I should paint with more feeling.  He would correct my fingers and the way I held the brush many times.  He was so patient and constantly showed me how to paint leaves.  He has practiced the art of painting leaves for a year and I thought I could pick it up in a day.  NO way.  There is a specific way to create each part of nature according to my young Chinese teacher.  I would watch him paint.  Then I would copy his strokes.  I quickly forgot and couldn’t do it again to save my soul.  He never laughed just keep showing me again and again.  Is this what I need in my story of life, someone to show me again and again how to do it right?  I am beginning to wonder.

Is life a painting?  Think about that just a moment.  If  life is a painting, what does your’s look like?  Is it beautifully executed  or retouched and muddy.   Have you hung it on the wall or do you rework it over and over?  Today lets stop reworking our paintings, lets create a new one to hang on the wall?  You need some new supplies or new thoughts.  For me I bought all new supplies in a shopping trip to “Fu Zi Meow” or Confucius Temple shopping mall.  New bamboo brush, ink, felt pad, paper, and a couple of  “how to”  books in Chinese.  Fresh start.  New supplies are like new thoughts.  What do you want to paint?  I want to paint a mountain with misty clouds… but first I need to learn grass, rocks, leaves and flowers.   This is the start of my creation, a thought provoking mountain landscape.  Must learn the parts to create the whole composition according to my young teacher.  Like life, get all the pieces in order to create a great life painting.

Pieces?  What are your pieces?  Think for a moment, all the sweet things in your life.  Do you need to thank someone for something they did for you?  Maybe a child cut their finger and you were able to offer a band-aide and compassion to heal their wound and dry a tear.  Have you talked to your child today?  No!  My suggestion is call them and say “I love you”  for no reason.  Write them an email or text them a nice message.  Know an old person that is lonely, then go visit them?  Don’t know an old person, then call your grandmother and say hi.  You can smile at someone when your walking down the street.  Take someone to lunch and pay for it.  See someone on the street begging for money, then give them a coin or two.   Your painting becomes a compassionate one, one with tender feelings and love.  Every minute you are painting a life story, make yours beautiful, full of wonderful emotions and lovely memories.

Remember you can’t go back and rework it or you will muddy it up.

Start creating your story of life.  Reflect and step back, look at it and admire the effort you spent on it.  You might want to do this every evening just before you fall sleep, recall all the events of the day and say, “What a nice composition I created.”  Then fall asleep, and awake to a new day and start your new work of art.

What are you creating?  Hit the reply button and tell me what it is you created today!

Toilets in China

So many questions about bathroom facilities.   These are the little commodes and urinals at the the daycare connected to the high school in Suzhou.   I took a picture as I had never seen a tiny urinal…. It is unusual to see tiny toilets or any western toilets in China.

This is a basic  ladies rest room.  You squat facing the door, cause if some one opens the door you want them to see your face not your booty, so says Alice my friend.  You do not flush any paper products.  There is NO toilet paper in majority of bathrooms, so you bring your own.  The paper you carry comes in packages like this.  You carry a small pack of 10 little kleenex.  If you forget, you hope a friend has some.  Otherwise, well you can guess.  Personally I hold one over my nose when I squat, as the smells are usually horrendous!  A friend told me always lean forward or you might fall in.  I have heard some people have dropped their cell phones in there!  Good bye phone.  By the way this is a clean one at the school.

You will notice in my downstairs bathroom, it is tiled floor and walls with a drain in the floor.  Can be convenient if you have a water issue!  You see a white hose, that is the run out from my washer.  I also have a mop sink, very hygienic, don’t you think?  In my upstairs bathroom, above the commode or western lou I have a hot water heater for my shower.  Never flush the toilet and jump into the shower right after, the water will stop and you will be cold and wet for a few minutes until the water tank fills back up.  The water heater in my kitchen heats water for the kitchen and sink in the downstairs bathroom only.  No hot water for the washing machine.  This is the heater that ignites loudly when you turn the hot water on in the sinks.  It does get ever so hot.

I saw a UFO!

I saw a UFO night before last!  Walking back to the hotel about 9pm looked up and this set of green lights in a semi-circular pattern were flashing on and off.  It was hovering around and then would change the light pattern into a triangle.  I saw the hotel guard and signaled for him to see it.  He agreed “UFO”– universal word, as he spoke no English.  Other people walked up and some showed me on their English/Chinese hand held computer translator they thought it was a kite or a helicopter.  NO way Jose, this is a UFO.  It was higher than the skyscrapers and just floated around, maybe twenty minutes.  I went to my room and tried to photograph it but can’t seem to get the shutter to stay open long enough.  Need to read up on time exposures  in my Nikon book!  Alas no proof, darn!

Woke up to a Chinese cooking TV show this morning.  Ok sauté some garlic, add some chili powder and water, looks like soup we are making, um.  Now the main ingredient oh my gosh it is a fish head!  They sprinkle it with a dark vinegar (No  soy sauce is used here at all!  Surprise, that must be a Japanese custom) and fry it.  Then plop that head in the soup and add some fresh eggplant, tomatoes, green beans with a corn starch thickener.  Ok I am going to pass on cooking or eating this!

Infomercials are here too. I saw one for buying uncirculated Chinese yuan, probably proofs.  Another was a rubber set of breasts with a hole in them to increase your bust size, yet still have nipplies and the last was a Blender-Boiler to make hot soy milk!  My favorite TV show is the Spanish Bull fights translated into Chinese!  I’ve never really seen a bull fight — so this has been a new education, watching the matador get pierced in the leg by a bull’s horn.  He tries to save face and not look like he is dying from severe agony and continues to hobble and coax the bull to ram his cloak.  I think the Chinese like “blood and guts” on TV.  I saw a news show with a child that was backed over by a car and the driver just didn’t see him.  He then proceeded to drive forward, hit him again, open the door jump out then the car rolls back over the kid.  What a mess, I never could figure out if the child survived.  In America we just wouldn’t see all the gory details.

Walking toward the back entrance of the University I meandered by a sweet little pond, with huge red-orange goldfish.  I heard the sweetest melody, someone is singing a Chinese opera song.  I saw a very old gray haired lady just strolling around the pond singing I guess to the fish.  I was transposed and couldn’t move.   She looked up, saw me, smiled and kept on singing.  What a charming moment in time!  Walking on, I come to a tunnel with a ten inch thick cement door.  Ok now what is this?  I walk in and see the  light at the end of the tunnel.  (Spiritually I am looking  to see the light at the end of my tunnel!)  As I walk though, I realize it might have been a bomb shelter, damp, dank, with exposed wires running the length of it for lights and a trench on the sides collecting water and what ever else is wet and smelly.

Leave the tunnel, and hop on a taxi.  Today it is sunny and I notice my cab driver has on a short sleeve T shirt with pull on sleeves he has added that tie at the wrist and upper arm, plus white gloves.  Well this is an interesting fashion statement!  Later I learn that the Chinese want to stay light complexed  and I am wearing a tank top to get what little bit of direct sun I can find to tan. We have the windows down even in the heat, and we drive past men pulling carts with piles of Styrofoam packing pieces, one with used cardboard boxes flattened and tied down, and another with old lumber pieces bouncing around.  All of this looks like trash to me, but may be someones treasures, I don’t know.  I see a biker with twenty or so helium brightly colored balloons, maybe he is going to the hospital down the road.  Another man is walking balancing two large bowlfuls of fruit on ropes with a stick across his neck.  Then out of the blue we stop at a red light and I hear this god-awful coughing up and hocking of a loogie right next to my window.  Seems this is quite accepted and I hear and see this many times a day.  The thing is, don’t step on it when walking!  Another reason to leave your shoes at the door of your home.