“Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.” – Gerard De Nerval
This might be a little sappy, but if you ever were moved by a beautiful swath of wild flowers on the side of the road you know what this is about. The great thing about flowers, indeed, all of nature, is that there isn’t any ‘trying’ to make something great. There is only what grows naturally and becomes what it is suppose to become. That is what makes it great.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Thinking is more interesting than knowing but less interesting than looking.” – Johann Goethe
So, as you look at this quote do you know what you think? 🙂 I like this quote, by the way. I know in my life it is true. Knowing is most interesting when you are taking action or teaching or creating. Thinking is most interesting while doing those things plus most any other situation. But looking, looking (or seeing) is collecting, it’s thinking, it’s knowing, it’s exploring, it’s losing yourself in something and finding more about yourself as a result. I love looking.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“None are so poor they have nothing to give and none are so rich they have nothing to receive.” Pope John Paul II
It might be more blessed to give than receive according to the ancient text, but it is impossible to give without a receiver. I often think that people forget that they help the world by receiving graciously. Receiving wisdom from a professor for
example, or receiving guidance from a friend. It isn’t just the value received that counts, it is also the value that the giver feels when they are allowed to give.
Beyond that it is the ‘pay it forward’ idea, that everyone receiving something in turn gives to another farther down the road. That is the quintessential element of having children, realizing you will not get back from them what you gave them, they will give it to their children farther down the road.
How poor you are only impinges on your ability to give when you limit your imagination to the world of money and commerce, buying gifts, etc.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“We do not choose the frame, only the painting inside.” – Anonymous
The frame is everything surrounding us from birth to death including the time in which we live. We can’t escape or control many elements of the frame. But we can control to a much greater degree two other things. One is what our painting (our self) looks like, and the other is the museum or gallery we are hanging in.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Happiness is rarely absent; it is we that know not of its presence.” – Maurice Maeterlinck
I like the idea of happiness being something that exists around you, like air, whether you are aware of it or not. The act of searching out that happiness, looking deep enough or maybe the opposite, shallow enough, to find it is a worthy endeavor if you ask me.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“The ripest peach is the highest on the tree.” – James Whitcomb Riley
This obviously means that one must reach high to get the best. But it also means something else. It means that something out there, beyond your grasp, is ready to be for you. And you need to reach not just so you can get your nourishment, but so the peach can be used as it has been prepared to be used.
Take for example you have a job opportunity overseas. You can’t see the people there, you can’t see the apartment you might have or the landlord, or the people in the building you might get to know. You can’t see the co-workers, the people at the cafe you frequent, you can’t see any of the opportunities in detail just as you can’t see the peach’s ripeness in detail when you look at it from the ground.
But what you can know is that it isn’t just an opportunity for you, it is an opportunity for others as well. You are part of a multi-dimensional array of unseen events when you reach for the best, when you reach for what is ready.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“I cannot know even whether I know or not.” – Arcesilaus
I don’t KNOW if I agree with this. Then again, what do I KNOW.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
I don’t get this one anymore. Anyone care to explain it to me?
“Body and spirit are twins: God only knows which is which.” – Algernon Charles Swinburne
“It is great cleverness to know how to conceal our cleverness.” – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The question is, why one must disguise one’s cleverness in the first place?
“Art is Choice” – Richard Walter
What does this mean? Is it similar to ‘God is Love’? If that is the case then it can be turned around, yes? Choice is Art. So, maybe what it’s getting at is that all the act of choosing is the act of art. Art is a codified, organized way of developing choices in a particular area. Rules for making choices?
Another question that comes from this is what happens when the artist is no longer making choices but instead is simply repeating him or herself, becoming a schlock artist, a serial artist with the same M.O. for each crime…I mean art piece. And
therein lies the reason someone like Thomas Kinkade long ago stopped being an artist and is now simply a huckster. Watch out for those who don’t use their ability for choice. They are no longer artists.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
