Open Hearts

Time constraints have limited my opportunities to check out the responses to Laura's latest challenge, but I've been thinking quite a bit about her baby boy, Artoo, and the hearts and minds around the globe bending their will to help him heal... what a wonderful world we have!  I have always said beaders are the nicest people around, but now I realize that it's ALL creative souls.  Not the art snobs, not the insecure people who only feel confident when they can run someone else down, but those who feel a genuine internal NEED to create.  Here are all these wonderful artists, some professional, the majority squeezing art into lives already ridiculously busy with work, family and community, and yet they lay aside their own challenges to send love and hope to a tiny child they will (probably) never meet.  I was inspired by these thoughts to offer up a second take on this challenge - a heart made with a combination of two previous challenges (simplicity and double-string) - and dedicate it to all those fabulous, thoughtful, decent, considerate people who make this world worth living in.  In short, this one's for you!  I hope you like it.

Happy Wednesday!

Friday Affirmation

Another crummy day-job day (I know, "same old, same old"... *G*) with four unpaid hours of overtime.  Arriving home at bedtime, tired and hungry, I ate and turned to my computer where I found an email from an online friend.  Susan (http://arts-4-all.blogspot.com/) was continuing a conversation about the necessity to find time to be creative and how a friend of hers could benefit from Zentangle.  Zentangling is pretty much the perfect creative pursuit for the harried lives we sometimes lead.  With very basic and minimal supplies, a few moments of stillness - waiting in line, sipping a coffee, riding public transit - is really all that is needed to nourish our creative souls.  Every act of creation I commit is my connection to the greater universe, a touch of the divine in my mundane life, an opportunity to rejoice in possibility.  I really appreciated the reminder from Susan, and so I got out my Zentangle journal and tangled away.  While I don't think this is necessarily my best work, I now feel content, peaceful and satisfied.  NOT how I returned home today!  In fact, I may just fall right asleep after I sign off! *G*  So here is my very simple, very quick, very helpful (to me!) little tangle du jour:

Happy Friday!