Today I bought some paints and canvas. I started two paintings. My job is stressful. I need to think all the time for work, so I need an outlet for my creative energy. I haven't been able to do artwork for a long time, there just never seems to be enough time.

It was a nice day and I was sitting outside at a cafe near where I live just watching all the people go by. I love watching people, I have since I was a small child. I usually paint people - faces - and it inspired me to buy the paints.

I also bought some plants today. I love being outdoors in a garden, so I want to create a feeling like I'm in a garden in my flat. It was nice to set them all around. I have some empty boxes that will work nicely as plant stands. I will cover them with some wrapping paper I found that looks like hammered cooper. I suppose I should get some furniture, but that will come. I'm pretty good at making inexpensive things look like rich furniture.

Well, enough for now.

Love is the best gift of All!
A single mother, Joan didn"t have money for anything beyond bare essentials, so when her two young daughters asked to buy their Grandmother a Mother"s day gift she had to explain it would need to be a small gift. In the store the girls walked up and down the aisles, then Debby spotted a display of small plants. "We could get a plant for Grandma!" she said.

Cindy added, "Grandma loves flowers!" There was a large selection of plants only 50 cents each. The girls settled on a plant with shiny green leaves and white markings, a philodendron.

That was a special Mother"s Day! Grandma loved the gift and placed it on her kitchen window sill. The small plant thrived under Joan"s Mom"s caring hands.

Many years later when the girls were grown into lovely young women with babies of their own, Debby and Cindy visited their mother and noticed the philodendron twining all around their mothers kitchen window. "Is that plant new?" Debby asked.

Joan explained you just had to break off a stem and place it into a glass of water and let it root. Didn"t they remember that they had given Grandma a philodendron for Mother"s Day all those years ago?

"This is all from that same little plant?" they asked. Joan assured them it was and suggested they ask Grandma for some cuttings to start their own plants. They did just that, and Cindy marveled, "Do you know Grandma still has the original plant?"

It was just a little Mother"s day gift, and an inexpensive one at that, but now 40 years later, Joan and her daughters see the beauty of it. A philodendron is like a human family. You break off a little stem from the mother plant and re-root it somewhere else. It gorws and spreads into its own unique pattern that still somehow resembles the plant from which it came.

The philodendron has become a symbol for Joan"s family of how connected they all are.

Prohibit the taking of omens, and do away with superstitious doubts. Then, until death itself comes, no calamity need be feared.
Sun Tzu
(544 BC-496 BC)

I just moved into my own space. It is quiet and soothing. Not such a long commute, either. I'm working in a large city. I am not used to large cities. The traffic, the noise, the people, the smells, the rush, it is all so overwhemling. I miss home.

So much time spent traveling. Now I can rest a little more. Relax, perhaps start yoga again. Paint. That's something I haven't had time to do for years. I will paint again. But tonight I will just rest and enjoy the quiet and peace. Enjoy my little space.

Along the path of life I became afraid. I was not always like this. Something happened years ago to shake my confidence in the goodness of human beings. Now I hide away, not trusting anyone. I don't like the person I've become, but I don't know how to regain the joy of  innocence.