The inner artist

566-2The time of spring and Easter, for those who celebrate it, is often considered a time of renewal and growth. Unless you live in a tropical climate that hardly changes, you will most likely experience this progression in the seasonal change from the cold, dark winter to the lighter, warmer days of spring. As the days are filled with more natural sunlight, birds sing their hearts out of newfound happiness, trees blossom and the grass is green again, I also become alive. It is not a coincidence that spring is my favorite season. While the results of growth are easier to notice when taking a walk through nature in the spring, human beings also benefit from the personal growth and renewal this season brings.

When I look back at many spring times of my life, I realize that I too have gone through many changes that taught me a lesson and allowed my soul to grow. This year, I have decided to let my inner artist emerge. When we think of art, paintings, music, sculptures or novels often come to mind. However, I believe that art can take many different forms. I also believe that art is the language the universe speaks to us. It is no coincidence that many people call talents God given gifts. I also believe that those gifts are individually wrapped and placed in our hearts and souls the moment we are created and come to this earth to express them.

Everyone has a reason to be here. Many people wonder what it is. I believe that one of the reasons we come here is to share our gifts. Doing so allows our souls to shine and seek fulfillment while on earth. How do you know what your gift is? I think that our passions are our key emotions to answer this question. Our souls long for growth and expression. We can do so by sharing our talents with the world. I have longed to be an artist as long as I can remember. I also know that I was an artist in at least one or more past lives. This year, it is time to let my inner artist emerge and come to the surface. I know that I have been hiding for too long. My soul longs to be expressed and shared with the world. Encouraged and empowered I look into the warm spring sun and feel reassured that, after the cold, long winter, I am ready to emerge from my shell. I wish you all the same growth and newfound happiness that you will find when you start following your passions and express your soul’s wishes for fulfillment whatever form it takes.

The question is, what can you do when fears and doubts appear along the way? On your path, people will criticize you, push you down and tell you that you are never going to make it. Don’t let their egos keep you from growing. Don’t accept their negativity as a sign that you are not going to succeed. It’s like telling an egg in a bird’s nest that no singing bird will ever come out of its shell, a cocoon that it will never change into a beautiful butterfly or a seed in the ground that it will never ever grow into a gorgeous flower. No negativity can stop growth and the expression of the gifts of the universe through art and beauty just as a late winter storm cannot stop spring from coming. So, this spring and beyond, let your inner artist emerge, share your passions, and help make our world a more beautiful and artistic one just as God has intended it to be when it was created.

Love, Barbara

 

Copyright © 2016 by Barbara Bullock, Photo taken at Hotel Dolder Grand Zurich in 2011 by Barbara Bullock

#Love # Soul #March #Easter #Spring #Growth #Artist #Art #Writer #Writing #Butterfly #Flower #Seed #Emerging #Inner #Inside #Mission #Passion #Light #Bird #Sing #Painting #Music #Expression #Seed #Egg #Winter #Storm #Positivity #Negativity #Cocoon #Talent

Look closely and you’ll see…..

Look closely to see divine perfection in the spring
Look closely to see divine perfection in the spring

Dear friends,

When you look closely at something, what do you see? What happens when a sight captures you instantly and leaves you in amazement beyond your understanding? I can tell you what you see. Spring time is my favorite season as far as nature is concerned. Running over green meadows, walking through enchanted forests, listening to the songs of the birds, sitting by the lake listening to the sparkling water while enjoying the sun warming my face, I feel free.

Gone are the days of the confinement of winter. Gone are the chills that hold many creatures in captivity during the frigid temperatures and hostile conditions. As new life is bountiful everywhere, something captures my sight. Far in the distance I see something I have never seen before. I decide to get up from my bench and approach it. Bigger and bigger it seems the closer I get. Smaller and smaller do I appear as it stands mightily in front of me. It even blocks the sunlight. “What is this?” I ask myself. Failing to remember what my Biology teacher once told me, I realize that it does not really matter. What does matter is the amazement that I felt on that particular day. “Capture this,” an inner voice told me. I took my camera and held it against the branches. An inner voice instructed me to use the zoom. Knowing that orders from within are usually of celestial nature, I followed my order and held my camera against the object. In astonishment of its beauty, I took a picture of it. As I looked closely, I saw something. Not just something. I realized that this was beauty that only the divine could create. Petal after petal flawlessly aligned next to each other, each contributing its fragment to the seamless whole in pure perfection.

The outcome is the photo included in today’s post. Isn’t it beautiful? Aren’t these blossoms amazing? The outcome was my astonishment of divine beauty entailed in details that can only be captured when you look at the blossom of a tree in the spring closely. Friends, take some time out of your busy days to do just that. Go to the park on a sunny afternoon. Go look at the blooming trees and colorful spring flowers. Look closely though. You won’t see divine perfection unless you do so. Look closely and be astonished. It always works for me especially when I feel depressed and deprived of nature’s beauty after a long, cold winter.

Love,

Barbara

 

Copyright © 2015 by Barbara Bullock

Photo credit © 2015 by Barbara Bullock

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Barbara-Bullock/277533425653786

#Spirituality #Spring  #Blossoms #Beauty #Tree #Nature #Divine #Perfection

Black is beautiful. Not just in February. A tale on perspectives and colors

Light and dark in February
Light and dark on Oahu, Hawaii

Dear friends,

I took the photograph, you see here today, in Hawaii last year. Hawaii is known for gorgeous beaches, beautiful flowers, stunning scenery and the famous and welcoming Hawaiian spirit of “Aloha”. Imagine a picture perfect sunny day, lush, green trees, flowers so colorful that no paint would suffice if you’d tried to color them, and blue skies melting into the turquoise Pacific. On my walk along the beach I arrived at a lagoon. I stopped and took the stunning surroundings in as much as I could. Any thoughts of winter disappeared way back into my mind. I did not want to be reminded of any cold, wet, and snowy weather this time of the year. This was February after all.

Suddenly, I felt a presence. I turned around but could not see anyone. I shrugged my shoulders and walked on. There it was again. “Who is it?” I asked. No answer. I had had someone in spirit communicating with me before. Still, no answer. So I walked on.

Then my eyes fell on my camera. “Maybe I should take another picture”, I thought. And so I did. I have always liked taking pictures of something beautiful as long as I can think. I have also been very blessed in my life being able to travel around the world and capture many picturesque sites. I was used to pointing my camera to something amazing. This time it was different. There seemed more at work here than just me. It felt as if someone or something was taking my camera and guiding my hands into something I had never seen before. As I looked through the lens and let my hands and camera go where they wanted, I realized that they were pointing into the sun. Immediately, I remembered any knowledge of photography I had. “Don’t take pictures right into the sun or they will be too bright”, is what I had always been told. However, spirit seemed to want me to do exactly that. So I took the picture.

The photograph you see today is the outcome. It was not taken at night; nor was it altered. I believe that spirit guided me that day to look directly into the sun, take a picture and see what happens. What happened is amazing. What happened made me realize that things are never as they appear. Green palm trees were suddenly pitch black, flowers were gone, the water murky, items unrecognizable, and the sun barely there. If you imagine scenery like that, you would never think that I am still speaking of the paradise of Hawaii. At a first glance, it seems that everything is just black. That’s not considered beautiful, right? Now, take a closer look. Isn’t it beautiful? Isn’t it magical? It’s not colorful for sure. It’s black and it’s white. Isn’t it gorgeous combined that way?

That day I learned that where there is light there is dark and where there is shadow; there must be a light nearby. Each cannot exist without the other. Colors cannot exist without each other. Otherwise, there would be no difference. Everything would be the same. Everything would be just one. No colorful flowers, no stunning landscape, no vibration raising our spirits, no color. I also learned how beautiful black can be. In addition, I learned that no color is what it appears to be. It depends on your perspective. It depends how you see it and what kind of lens you use. If you don’t like what you see, change your perspective and take a closer look. You might find that it is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen. Even in black. Just as spirit guided me on that day to trust its guidance instead of my judgment and knowledge, open your heart and mind when you take a closer look at things around you, people around you, and colors around you.

Isn’t it beautiful? Aren’t people of all colors just as beautiful as the exotic and colorful Hawaiian Islands? Black is beautiful. Not just in February.

Love, Barbara

Copyright © 2015 by Barbara Bullock

Photo credit © 2014 by Barbara Bullock

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Barbara-Bullock/277533425653786

#Hawaii #photography #color #February #black