Must recommend a book: "The Book of Joy" co written by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalia Lama

Oh wow!  what a great difference these two are making in our old world.  Got this book (audio) and I have the privilege of listening to both of their voices as they share views on many subjects and deliver mischievous jabs at each other.  They are dear friends of long standing and both have hit the decade of 80's in age.  Spent a week together and this book was born.  Go to your library or buy it on Amazon for "not much".  All of my kids will get it.

Will be mighty thankful when the 4th of November arrives.  I have already voted via mail in and I have never felt stronger-----EVAH, EVAH, EVAH about an election.  That is all I'm going to say.

Did this plein aire painting of my Tree House Studio for the third time.

LIFE'S EXPERIENCES

Nothing goes to waste in life's journey.  Both good and bad experiences shape us for what is to come.

Sometimes we need to make a choice to not let the political climate, friends health issues, family difficulties, financial set backs, house maintenance, loss of pets, fatigue affect our daily outlook on life in this journey.

So, I did a very simple "sweet" painting that I could do almost in my sleep.  It does remind me of the time I was in  Ft Worth, Texas, painting in a Butterfly Garden at the Botanic Gardens.  A young girl with special needs was watching me intently.  Her age was probably 16.  I asked her if she would like to paint on my painting.  She was ecstatic.  Her Mother could almost not extract her from the paint brush and Mother had an appointment to get to.  Named the painting "Evelyn's Painting".  That painting is long gone, but here is my recent:

HOW WE CHOOSE TO LIVE

From Richard Rohr: (I get an email from him daily and he is one of my most respected mentors of life)  "You have to deliberately, consciously choose to love and not hate.  Because people haven't been taught that,  we have even decent people in our country, in political parties, and even in leadership positions in our churches who are much more at home with hate than they are with love.  And, they do not even know it".

Because of the recent election of our new President, I have been sick at heart at the hate espoused during the campaign.  What Rohr says helps me to understand a little bit more.  But, I am still sick at heart.

Sometimes I have to paint something just to lighten the mood.  Here is such a painting: