YESTERDAY - TODAY - TOMORROW

For the past several weeks I have been spending a lot of time on my yesterdays, looking at past artwork and reading old journals. I would like to think that this is something we tend to do as we accumulate the years, a notion that I find comforting. The older I get the more attraction the past seems to have for me, perhaps because life has been good to me. I’ve been blessed with a wonderful family, rich friendships, and have been able to follow my dreams, all with a minimum of pain and hardships. I’ve written that this exercise is to help my chart my future, but the truth is, it is simply something that gives me a great deal of satisfaction and many fond memories, some of which I hope to preserve for the benefit of children and grandchildren. I do very well reflecting on the yesterdays of my life.

I also do quite well dwelling on the tomorrows I hope will be there. In fact using Carl Jung’s criteria I could be considered an “intuitive”, one that tends to live significantly in the future. As family and friends can readily attest, I seem to thrive on change. Patience tends to cringe when she hears me say “you know...I’ve been thinking”. But tomorrow isn’t only about major changes in one’s life, for me it is also about planning and executing my next project or goal, usually, but not always related to my art. The focus may be short term, the next series of paintings, or long term, creating a book or planning a major exhibit. I need to have something to keep me engaged, and when I am, I am involved not only in the day at hand, but imaginatively in the days ahead.

My biggest problem is when there is no such engagement. My awareness of the value of living in the day often is of little help, and I tend to find myself wandering aimlessly about looking for something to attach myself to.

Does any of this make any sense to anyone?

To relieve any concerns you may have...I am currently engaged....working on the first of a series of pastel landscapes.