Lies and Darkness, Truth and Light

Posted on August 15, 2019 by This Woman Writes

Gossip and rumors are obviously not good things.

They do not, however, happen in a vacuum. They occur when truth is obscured, when shadows are presented as light, when people responsible for giving explanations are not trustworthy themselves.

mount nebo mountain utah wilderness landscape steve henderson painting

For now, the peaks are hidden, and the cracks and crevices of the mountains obscured in shadow. But light and wind work their changes. Mt. Nebo Range, art print from Steve Henderson Collections

It doesn’t matter if it’s a small town squabble or national debacle. Regular, decent people are smart enough to know when they’re being put off, and that’s too often how these things go.

“Just don’t say anything about it, and it will all die down,” is the conventional wisdom of people in power.

But it doesn’t. Die down, that is.

Once the item is off the front page of the newspaper, replaced by something new and improved that is distressing, shocking and violent (or, conversely, some wild and wacky antic by a reality show celebrity), it’s assumed that it’s forgotten. And while the rumors and gossip may die down, the questions, the doubt, the distrust held by regular, decent, smart people remain.

And most importantly . . . as the light shifts, it shines into the shadows, and what was hidden is revealed.

The artwork, Mt. Nebo Range, catches the Utah wilderness mountains in a moment of clouds obscuring the peaks.  At the foothills, portions of the landscape repose in darkness, and it’s difficult to see detail.

But the landscape, and weather, are not static — as we stand in the winding dirt pathway at the right foreground of the image, we look at the peaks and know that sometime — maybe soon, maybe not — the breeze will blow the clouds away and the peaks will shine in their detail. As the sun advances across the sky, what was in shadow will be no more. The entire landscape will look different.

All we have to do is wait — patiently, watchfully, steadfastly. And while we wait, we continue to think.

Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes. Posts complementing this one are

The Lies We’re Told

Bullies and Bunny Rabbits — This Is Not Looney Tunes, Folks

Deception, Deceit, Dishonesty — Is This Our 3D World?

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Who Wants to Be Angry All the Time?

Posted on August 13, 2019 by This Woman Writes

This last week, I encountered a number of angry, irritated people. A couple of them came out verbally swinging, and while my first reaction was to swing back, I didn’t. Instead, I did the old “a soft answer turns away wrath” thing.

palouse falls waterfall landscape wilderness washington steve henderson

Anger, like massive quantities of water, needs time and space to diffuse. Below Palouse Falls, art print from Steve Henderson Collections

For one person, it worked. He calmed down, and by the end of the interaction we were new friends. His problem was successfully resolved.

The other guy wasn’t having anything to do with soft answers, and was fully into wrath. He was not interested in explanations, reparations, or solutions: he just wanted to vent. Which he did, vociferously.

Suffice it to say, his problem was not solved, and we did not part friends.

Lots of people are angry these days, and understandably so. We live in a society where there are decided problems and issues, but no person within our reach who can actually solve them. Instead, we shuffle from one “customer care,” customer service, or political aide to the next, with the too frequent response of, “Gee, we’re sorry this happened, but I can’t do anything on my end. I’m really really sorry.”

It’s easy to get mad at the messengers, because they’re the only ones we can talk to. The people with power to make things right hide in the shadows.

The artwork, Below Palouse Falls, gives a visual of where we might want to be in this frustrating situation. In our anger, we’re upriver at Palouse Falls (center background — you can see the spray). By the falls proper, a vast cascade of water floods over the cliffs, roiling and boiling in the pool, 200 feet below. This is our anger, and while we are here, we are in danger from the power and flow of water. It can drown us.

But just below the falls, the water calms, and we are able to think more clearly. We need not (and should not) give up pursuing justice, but we do so more wisely and well when we are not venting, in a state of furious, impotent rage.

In a clear place, in a quiet state, we more effectively act.

Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes. Posts complementing this one are

Your Vote Is Worth Less Than Your Prayer

Little Things Really Do Make a Big Difference

Are You Important?

 

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Little Things Really Do Make a Big Difference

Posted on August 5, 2019 by This Woman Writes

It is natural for human beings to want to make a difference in the lives of others around us. For all our issues — we can be selfish, greedy, envious, arrogant, proud, angry, and petty — we also possess good qualities. Kind, reasonable adults feel compassion toward those who are hurting, and when we ourselves have been hurt in similar ways — we’ve been lonely, we’ve fretted about money, we’ve made stupid mistakes and been treated with understanding — we’re less likely to trumpet judgment.

geese sunrise river columbia country morning dawn river steve henderson art

In the landscape, the geese make up a very small physical part, but they add — literally — volumes to its impact. Sunrise on the Columbia, art print from Steve Henderson Collections.

Our society, which worships celebrities and rich people, tells us that the only way to make a real difference is to head to poor countries overseas and start a non-profit foundation. But this is a misconception that prevents real people from doing the true good we can do.

Truly, it’s the little things that make a difference: a genuine, kind compliment to another is priceless. A small, random gift to someone for no other reason than that they exist creates unseen, but lasting, impact. And listening: never, ever underestimate the power of putting down your phone, turning to the person who is talking to you, looking them in the eye, and listening. Not judging, not thinking about what you’ll say in response, but listening.

The artwork, Sunrise on the Columbia, illustrates the importance of the little, hidden, almost unseen things. In the big picture, the gaggle of geese swimming by physically play a very small part, seemingly eclipsed by sky, trees, the river itself. But they are what make the morning magical: we hold our breath as they swim by because we don’t want to break that magic, scare them away, impel them to flight. That tiny little flock of geese transforms a beautiful morning into a memorable one, and when we tell others about it, that’s what we remember.

Small things . . . are not so small after all.

Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes. Posts complementing this one are

Are You Too Ordinary to Make a Difference?

Why Your Life on This Planet Means Something

Are You Important?

 

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Peace and Quiet — We NEED These

Posted on August 1, 2019 by This Woman Writes

Some words go together really well, like “cookies and milk,” or “crackers and cheese.”

Food aside, another fine pairings of words is “peace and quiet.” And while it’s possible to enjoy cookies without the milk, or crackers without the cheese, peace and quiet complement one another in a way that is strongly interwoven, to the point that if you pull on one thread, you unravel and weaken the fabric.

banking columbia river canoe picnic island river steve henderson landscape art

A lone canoe, in a quiet, remote place. Here, one finds peace and quiet. Banking on the Columbia, art print from Steve Henderson Collections.

In a place of cacophonous noise — loud voices, thumping “music” beat, dinging phones, and the drone of the TV or radio — it’s difficult to feel at peace. Quiet invites us to slow down physically, and mentally.

In the same way, in an environment of anger, frustration, anxiety, hatred, bitterness, envy, and sarcasm, the heart is not quiet. It agitates, worries, fulminates, cries out for relief — for peace.

The artwork, Banking on the Columbia, invites the viewer to step away from the noise and the tension into a remote place where one can wander and explore — because that’s what we do when we are in a place of peace and quiet: we give our minds opportunity to wander and explore: to question, to think through issues, to daydream, to wonder.

When we are constantly surrounded by noise and stress, our minds do not have this freedom, but they run, like hamsters on wheels, around and around and around the same concerns, the same worries, the same irritations. Life seems to have no answers because we do not have time and space to seek them.

We need to step away. If we cannot paddle a canoe to a remote island, then we can close and lock the bathroom door, put in ear plugs, and run a hot shower or bath. But we need to find peace and quiet.

Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes. Posts complementing this one are

“Quiet” and “Shy” Are Not the Same Word

It’s Not Abnormal to Want to Be Alone

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Children Have Something to Teach Adults

Posted on July 31, 2019 by This Woman Writes

Children see the world differently.

One, they’re very literal. I’ll never forget our daughter, at two, responding to a question about how people reacted to the new dress she wore to a special event.

child eden summer garden green hat innocence country steve henderson

Children find beauty in items because they are beautiful, not because they possess a false or artificial value. Child of Eden, art print from Steve Henderson Collections.

“Did you get any comments on your dress?” we asked.

“No,” she said, looking, vaguely alarmed, down at the skirt. “There’s nothing on the dress.”

This is charming, yes. But there is also a wisdom to the straightforward, uncomplicated way that children approach their world and the people in it. They do not look for — nor expect — hidden motivations. They do not manipulate words in clever and cunning fashions so that they seem to be saying one thing but really meaning another. They do not value items for no other reason than that the marketplace announces them relevant or trendy or cool.

In many ways, they exhibit a logic that we adults have lost.

The artwork, Child of Eden, explores this sense of innocence and wonder. A little girl stands in the midst of a garden — and where better than a garden to personify innocence? She clutches a bunch of radishes as if they were the most beautiful bouquet.

Who is to say that they are not? Like flowers, this bounty of the garden is colorful and varied in shape and form. They’re fresh and new, a sign of the season’s growth and abundance.

In the little girl’s mind, a cluster of radishes would look fine in a vase, a worthy gift to be taken to her mother or father as a sign of her love.

To the adult mind, it’s an odd gift. But to the wise adult mind, the one that observes children and tries to recapture their curiosity, their openness, their willingness to accept things at face value, it’s a truly precious gift.

Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes. Posts complementing this one are

The One Time It’s Good to Feel Small

Think Like a Child

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The Power of Doing Nothing

Posted on June 21, 2019 by This Woman Writes

Busy, purposeful, efficient, enterprising — these are words of excellence and worth in American culture.

When you think about it, the U.S. doesn’t actually have a culture, unless you consider going to work, thinking about ways to get rich, spending money, and losing ourselves in TV, movies, and social media a hallmark of culture.

summer breeze country boy flying kite freedom steve henderson art painting

No place to go, no homework to complete — a young boy is content with simply doing nothing. Summer Breeze, art print from Steve Henderson Collections.

The imaginary Christian heritage many ascribe to this nation (which Kevin M. Cruse excellently discusses in his book One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America) adds to our enslavement to work, money, and commerce. Too many people who consider themselves Christians quote Proverbs (“The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied” — Proverbs 13:4) than they do Jesus (“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” — Matthew 5:5).

If you’re poor, they sniff, it’s because you deserve to be so. Nothing is said about many being poor because wages are low, so that corporate business profits remain high.

The result of this culture of ours is that we’re chronically busy, incessantly pushed to do more with promise that we will somehow be more: richer, smarter, faster, more powerful — virtues of the modern business world.

The artwork, Summer Breeze, encourages us to step out of this mindset into a place of quiet, reflection, imagination, and freedom. A young boy — unbound from the confines of the schoolroom — walks with a kite in the breeze. (Think of it — he’s not even flying the kite, and isn’t that the purpose, the very reason of existence for the kite? So thinks the person shackled by U.S. cultural norms.)

Perhaps he sees himself as a sailing ship, his kite the sails. Maybe he’s a bird, high in the air. Or maybe . . . he’s just feeling the tug of the kite against the wind and glorying in the strength of his arms, holding on.

It matters not. He is alone, free with his thoughts, away from schedules and tasks, obligations and lessons, goals and duties. In doing nothing, he has time to think, and in thinking, he is doing much indeed.

Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes. Posts complementing this one are

When You Live Smarter, Harder, Faster — You Don’t Live

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God Made the Boat. You’re the Boat. God’s Not Going to Burn up the Boat.

Posted on June 20, 2019 by This Woman Writes

The American Evangelical “Christian” church has much to answer for in people’s confusion about God. After all, their central tenet is this:

God made you.

You’re a sinner.

Because God is perfect and you’re a sinner, He can’t stand you and recoils at your presence.

zephyr sail sailing boat vessel schooner sea ocean steve henderson art

Because God has an investment in the boat, He is intent about making sure it does not capsize. Zephyr, art print from Steve Henderson Collections

The only way He can tolerate you is if you ask Jesus to step between you and God. If you don’t, God will send you to eternal hell. If you do, God will accept you and you can live with Him for eternity.

This is how God loves you.

It’s no wonder people find difficulty with a God like this — no decent human parent would treat their own children this way because unconditional love doesn’t . . . place conditions. And yet American Evangelical Christianity thrives upon them.

The artwork, Zephyr, is a visual example of one way God, the true God — the Father who reaches out to His children and calls us through eternity to be a part of His household — works with us. It looks like this.

Our life is the boat.

God made the boat. (He knows, when He made the boat, that it has issues, but He made it anyway. To destroy it afterwards because it has issues is foolish on the part of the person building the boat.)

God owns the boat.

The boat needs a captain, and the Owner’s choice is Christ — because, being in close connection with the boat’s owner, Jesus knows all about how the boat runs.

The boat also needs a First Mate (that’s us), working closely with the Captain and the Owner of the boat with the joint goal of sailing the boat through many seas — stormy ones, calm ones, on sunny days and rainy ones, in and out of ports, all around the world. Now the First Mate could choose to act as Captain (and many of us do), but without training and teaching from the Captain, we probably won’t do so well. After all, we start out as babies, with little physical or intellectual ability to sail a boat. We need time, and teaching. Unless that teaching comes from someone who knows and understands the boat, we’ll falter.

The Owner of the boat isn’t going to burn it up because the First Mate won’t recognize the Captain. The Captain isn’t going to throw the First Mate overboard for taking over. Rather, the Owner of the boat and the Captain — because they are sensible, intelligent, and compassionate people —  will keep trying to connect with the First Mate to build a cooperative relationship.

What matters is the boat, and that it sails successfully.

Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes. Posts complementing this one are

Three “Christian” Teachings That Jesus Didn’t Teach

Kicked out of the Group? Take Time to Think

Is Jesus the (American) Way, Truth, and Life?

 

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Sunlight: Still Free, Still Available to All of Us

Posted on June 19, 2019 by This Woman Writes

Sunlight is a gift given to all life on the planet. So far, the few humans whose goal is to own everything, control everything, and take everything from everyone else, haven’t managed to limit the supply of sunlight, package it up, and sell it at a profit.

So far.

bathed light bath bathroom spa woman figurative nude beauty luxury steve henderson art

Like a contented cat, a woman stretches in the sun and toward the light. Bathed in Light, art print from Steve Henderson Collections.

Throughout history, sunlight has shone on the good and the evil, the wise and the foolish, the plants and the animals and the people and the sea. It adds warmth in both temperature and emotion, and one of the most important things it does is dispel darkness.

Because sunlight is just that — it is LIGHT. And light has the unique and extraordinarily valuable ability to shine through darkness and cut through the shadows. Where it is dark and no one can see, bad and wrongful and evil things can be, and are done.

But wherever light reaches, those deeds are exposed like cockroaches, scurrying across the floor to hide in the cracks and crannies. Rare is the roach who stands nobly and proud in the middle of the floor, facing the eyes of the homeowner.

The artwork, Bathed in Light, celebrates the beauty and warmth of the sun and its light. A young woman stands in a glass-enclosed room, perhaps high overlooking the city. Wherever this room is, though she can see everything, she herself cannot be seen.

She is alone, and content in that aloneness, because it allows her time to think, to dream, to be in a time and place of quiet where there is peace and truth. She exults in the light — its warmth and its glow — and freely receives this incredible gift.

Walk in the light. Find truth where it shines. And know that darkness cannot overcome it.

Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes. Posts complementing this one are

Movies Aren’t Real, but Life Is

Choose Wisely Who Influences You

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Kicked out of the Group? Take Time to Think

Posted on June 17, 2019 by This Woman Writes

It’s difficult to think deep, serious, life changing thoughts in the middle of a rock concert.

Obviously, rock concerts aren’t set up for deep thinking and meditation — so why try? But, in a sense, we do.

shades turquoise lake alpine mountain hiking camping wilderness steve henderson art

High in the mountains, far from the noise, we are able to think. Shades of Turquoise, art print from Steve Henderson Collections.

In the American corporate/entertainment society, being alone in a quiet place is an oddity, and for this reason, we are constantly encouraged to be part of a group: church is a big one, but the office, schools, political arena, sports, and community service sector try to fill in our time. Lately, social media plugs the gaps, demanding that we interact digitally with clumps of people we really don’t know — because somehow, their opinion of us matters.

It’s as if we live in the midst of a parking lot during a massive, unending tailgate party, and our success in life is determined by how many people we eat with.

But sometimes we find ourselves standing outside the group, watching all the activity, no longer invited to be a part of it. In any group, this generally happens when an individual questions the accepted rules and regulations, the overall belief system, the authority of the leader. Anyone who has ever attended a church, for example, and found themselves at variance with the protocols of its human leadership, knows how very quickly one can be isolated from what one had been taught was their “family.”

It seems like a very bad, lonely thing, but in the end, actually it can be a good thing — if we use our time alone wisely.

The artwork, Shades of Turquoise, gives a visual example of what this time alone looks like. If we walk out of that parking lot — which we’re no longer welcome to be in for some reason — and keep heading up into the countryside, into the wilderness, into the mountains, we find ourselves in a far more beautiful place.

You bet it’s quiet and isolated, and looking around from our campsite we don’t see anyone else around. But it’s time to stop thinking about how alone we are and focus, instead, on brewing something to drink on the camp stove. Then, we sit at the banks of the cold, clear lake and look up into the peaks of the mountains.

And in the silence, in the peace, we can think.

Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes. Posts complementing this one are

It’s Not Abnormal to Want to Be Alone

Alone Does Not Mean Lonely, and Lonely Does Not Mean Loser

Walk Away from What Doesn’t Work

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Insist upon Living Your Life

Posted on June 14, 2019 by This Woman Writes

Time and money — these are two things that most people feel they never have enough of.

Well, there’s not a lot most of us can do about making significantly more money — high taxes and fees on ordinary people and low wages for honest work are the hallmarks of a “free market” capitalistic economy.

afternoon tea party mother child country family steve henderson art decor

Time isn’t money — it’s far more important, and lasting, than that. Afternoon Tea Party, art print from Steve Henderson Collections

Time, too, is something that the grasping mega-corporate culture can’t take enough of. We live under the constant pressure and propaganda to work harder, faster, smarter and constantly. Despite this, however, there are still 24 hours in each day, and while “they” fill our hours with incessant demands, they do not yet own every one of them.

(Incidentally, it’s worth looking at our free time and addressing how many thinking moments we give to work, mindless entertainment, social media, “news,” politics and other mental drains that produce little but worry, anxiety, insecurity, and discouragement.)

The artwork, Afternoon Tea, focuses on one of the most important things we can do with our time: we spend it — invest it, really — into the people we care about. And these people tend to be our family (one of the richest, most valuable resources humanity has), neighbors, and friends. As we see the value of these beautiful people and bask in their company, we grow in depth and wisdom. Soon, we find that have more love to give, and extend beyond our smaller circle to a larger one.

At the tea party, a little girl, a trusted adult, and pink teddy bear spend an afternoon “doing nothing” (when we think of it in corporate America terms). But when we think of it from the perspective of truth and reality, they are doing much indeed.

They are together. They are sharing not only watery tea but stories and companionship. And they’re having fun.

Aren’t these some of life’s most precious gifts?

Indeed they are. And they are worth taking time to live, and enjoy.

Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes. Posts complementing this one are

When You Live Smarter, Harder, Faster — You Don’t Live

Why Your Life on This Planet Means Something

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Posted in america, Art, blogging, Culture, Daily Life, Encouragement, Family, home, inspirational, Life, Lifestyle, money, simple living, success | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments