Spiritual Art Blog - *Ed P

Get your inspirational calendar for 2011

Inspirational Art Calendar 2011 for Sale, Now!

This calendar will inspire you every month of the year. Each picture was created for you, so you could find your own story and insights. While there are a few lines describing the thinking behind the picture, the reason it was created is to allow you explore your inner imaginative worlds. The pictures are a starting point to help you explore the worlds within your imagination. The details of the pictures act as catalysts and open doors so you can discover new vistas which you can explore at your leisure.

Each month has a large image which you can study and discover the small details which give hints to lead you to find your own individual story for each picture.

It is A3 size with a picture for each month by award winning artist Ed Parkinson. If you’d like to buy one just click this button.

 

It’s an ideal gift for you or the spiritually aware person in your life.

There are only 100 of the calendars printed, so if you’d like one, don’t delay. Order now to make sure you get yours. They are only €15 each, including postage and packing. They will sell out quickly. Click this button to order your calendar now.

 

This video shows all of the pages in the calendar.

 

Soul’s Connection

This is my latest attempt to show Soul’s connection with Its lower bodies which It operates as it explores Itself in these worlds of time and space. I’m still not happy with it but hopefully this will help lead me in the right direction of finding the right visual image to portray this concept.

The Holy Spirit and how to work with it

Thought for the Week

If we can learn how to work with the Holy Spirit or the Life-force, our lives can be happier and more fulfilled.

Define Holy Spirit
How do we define Holy Spirit? In a Christian society we tend to think of the Holy Spirit as a dove, which is how it has been illustrated by religious painters since the Renaissance times. The most memorable mention in the Bible concerns the Apostles meeting on Easter Sunday where the Holy Spirit appeared as tongues of fire and the sound of the rushing wind. For a lot of people today the word Life-force conjures up the right meaning. It is seen as the force which keeps life running and allows spiritual events to happen. It is a mysterious benevolent force which goes about God's work as we go about our lives.

How do we see the Holy Spirit in our lives?
Coincidences
There are some remarkable “coincidences” in our lives. Think of the significant people in our lives and how we met them. How were all those events orchestrated so we could meet? For a lot of the people who we are close to us today, very often, the situation of how we met was not of our choosing. Could the Holy Spirit be the one that organised it?

Feelings
When we feel something is wrong or needs to be done or that things are perfect, where do these feelings come from? They are often not logical but they can have a sense of urgency which we feel we have to act on. This is Soul’s way of getting Its message from the Holy Spirit to us. It uses our intuition to nudge us in the direction which is best for all concerned.

Being guided
Many of us have had the feeling of being guided through situations so that we emerge from them in a better condition than we might have had we followed the logical route. Some credit their Angel, Inner Guide, a deceased relative or friend. The Life-force will take on any form to help us through some situations. It will show us the way, it is up to us to use the guidance or not.

Messages pop up
For some people the Life-force communicates with them by using messages that pop up in their daily life. If could be a headline on a poster or in a newspaper. It could be a few words that pop up from the radio or a passing conversation. We can sometimes see symbols popping up repeatedly which spark a memory or thought which lead us in a particular direction or remind us of someone.

Going with the flow
We sometimes get the feeling that we are going with the flow of life, we are in tune with Holy Spirit. Everything seems to be in its proper place at the proper time and we flow with the events that are happening in our lives. We can also develop this feeling by looking at the events in our lives and watching where they are leading us. We begin to see why some things in life happen for us and not just to us.

Holy Spirit is God's love
Allowing love to flow through us, into our lives, into those around us and into our world is a way we can work with the Holy Spirit. God's love flows into the world to maintain it and allow it to exist. It allows us our freedom to do as we wish and in the process discover that we are Soul and a part of God's creation, a creation of love. When we use love in an unconditional way, we begin to use it like God does.

The Holy Spirit is God's love and by using love in our lives we are using the Holy Spirit. If we can use our love in an unconditional way, that is, not putting conditions on our love or expecting things in return, we are getting in tune with the Life-force and with Its energy, love.

Recognise the guidance of the Holy Spirit
Most of our communication with the Holy Spirit comes through Soul, into our intuition and then into our mind. If we have a clear connection with Soul and have developed a trust in our intuition we can accept these feelings as valid and a worthwhile benefit to running our lives here in this world. We begin to recognise the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the events of our loves and how we can work with it.

Soul lives and has its being in heaven supported by and surrounded by the Holy Spirit, the Life-force or the God force. It’s natural environment is in the Spirit so it is going to have access to its guidance and messages on an ongoing basis.

Ask for help
While the Holy Spirit will guide us and give us nudges when we are going through some events in our lives there is no reason why we can’t access It when we need It. We just have to ask for help. One of the basic spiritual laws is the Law of Non-interference where we cannot interfere in the affairs of another Soul without permission. Spirit abides by this law and will only respond if we give it permission or ask for help.

The guidance, feelings and messages It presents to us as we go through our lives are not forced on us, we decide to either follow them or ignore them. We have the freedom to do as we wish. There are often difficult situations where life is tough for us. These are the times we need to remember to ask for help. The Life-force may have been sending us messages but we cannot see them because of the stress we are under. We can ask to have the messages made simple so we can see and understand them.

For example, we could say “Please show me a green box if I should go in this direction or a red one if I shouldn’t”. Then watch out for the answers. We can even ask for the answer to appear within a week, a day or a few hours. It may even appear instantly.

Keep a Journal
If we can keep a journal of the spiritual or interesting inner events in our lives, we will begin to see the Holy Spirit’s influence in our lives. Initially we may see one or two events a week. After a while we may see two or three a day. We will than become comfortable with this guidance and help in our lives.

The Holy Spirit or Life-force is all around us. It is available to us every second of the day, every where in our lives, in our physical world and our inner world. If we invite It into our lives and begin to watch for Its guidance, It will lead us to a happier, more fulfilled and inspired life.

Wishing you a life filled with the love, guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

*Ed Parkinson

Inspirational Holy Spirit Quotes

"Most people who desire God look for the God state too far from home, but the seed of spiritual greatness is in the heart of all. The spiritual exercises help one find a comfortable relationship with the Eck, the Holy Spirit – and with all life."
Harold Klemp,

“O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.”
Saint Augustine

“Inspiration: A peculiar effect of divine flatulence emitted by the Holy Spirit which hisses into the ears of a few chosen of God.”
Voltaire

“If you come to Christ by a flash of the Holy Spirit so that by intuition you know that you are God's child, you know it by the text but you also know it by the inner light, the inner illumination of the Spirit, and no one can ever reason you out of it.”
W. Tozer

“If the Holy Spirit can take over the subconscious with our consent and cooperation, then we have almighty Power working at the basis of our lives, then we can do anything we ought to do, go anywhere we ought to go, and be anything we ought to be.”
E. Stanley Jones

“The Holy Spirit is the invisible third party who stands between me and the other, making us mutually aware.”
John Vincent Taylor

“The Holy Spirit (in Hebrew:רוח הקודש , in Arabic: الروح القدس), sometimes also referred to as the Holy Ghost, is a sacred being that has been mentioned in all Abrahamic religions. In Islam, the Holy Spirit designation is another way to refer to Gabriel, the high-ranked angel who was assigned by God to deliver his revelation to all apostles and prophets. He is also the angel who delivered the Annunciation to Mary and also delivered the Qur'an to the prophet Muhammad in the cave Hira in Mecca.”
TheFreeDictionary.com

“The Holy Spirit is the bridge to God within you. It is the part of your mind—the part of your Spirit—that is joined with the Mind of God. The Holy Spirit is the Voice for God and acts as a reminder to all of God's children of the unconditional love that God has for them.”
David Paul Doyle and Candace Doyle

“The Holy Spirit is God at work—creating, speaking, transforming us, living within us, working in us.”
 Michael Morrison

Soul’s Connection

Trying to get the connection Soul has with Its lower bodies into a visual form is a bit of a challenge. I have the idea that our physical body is like Soul’s hand plunged deep into these worlds where It can explore things, play with power, creativity and love, learning from the experiences. The image below is a render form the 3D program I use. We’re getting closer to a better portrayal of Soul’s Connection but we aren’t there yet.

 

Our spiritual journey

Thought for the Week
We are all on a spiritual journey whether we realise it or not. It doesn’t matter which religion or spiritual path we are travelling, from our higher self or Soul’s point of view it is a voyage of discovery. We will learn something by every experience we go through.

Before we were born into this life, we received a number of tasks and challenges to complete. These would have involved learning things from our family members, the people in our neighbourhood, our schoolmates, our workmates and our friends. We also had challenges to learn concerning our environment, where we lived, the weather, the economic conditions, the political, educational and communication systems in the world around us. We were given a list of tasks to fulfil on our spiritual journey in the physical world.

The core task
The core task of our spiritual journey is to learn about divine love or God’s love for us and the Souls around us. Our list of tasks and challenges are leading us in that direction.

If we are struggling to feed ourselves and our family, we are doing it because we have a commitment and love for our family and ourselves.

If we are going through an educational system or school, we are learning something to help us understand some aspect of our life and our world. This knowledge can bring us a better understanding, and appreciation of our world which can lead us to loving our world a little more.

If we are working, we are providing a service of some sort and earning our way in life. We are making a contribution and receiving a payment. Our service or work can help progress some aspect of life. If we can do our job with love, we will bring love to those affected by our work.

Decisions
As we go about our lives we make decisions which decide the direction of our spiritual journey. The decisions we take are usually part of our list of tasks to be completed in this life. When presented with a decision, we still use our own free will. Some decisions can be termed “wrong” as they cause upset or hurt. However, if we have learned something from the decision, there has been a benefit and it hasn’t been entirely “wrong”. When we do something “wrong” here it will come back to us for repayment or correction. We then learn the “correct” way of achieving our tasks or goals.

Some of our “right” decisions can have negative effects. All the decisions we take help us learn how life works and how to work with it. Whether the decision is “right” or “wrong” there is always an opportunity to learn. Each experience teaches us something about how life works. Every decision is like a step along the path. Sometimes we go forward, sometimes backward.

One of the many spiritual journeys
When we take the perspective that our current life is just one of the many spiritual journeys we have been on, we can relax a little, as we begin to grasp the bigger picture. With each life we go through, we are learning something new, a new skill, a new understanding and a new awareness. If we can have the attitude that we are on a voyage of discovery, our life can become more exciting and fun.

With the knowledge that we have had a number of lives comes the realisation that we have survived a number of deaths. Each life has ended and we moved on to our inner world. After a period there we make a move back to a physical life to gain the solid, hard and tough training it provides.

Divine Love
We are all on a spiritual journey. Each journey is as individual as each of us. We are all striving for happiness in some form or other. We discover what we though would make us happy, like money, power, sex, property, alcohol, drugs, etc., leaves us with the same empty feeling and unhappiness we had at the beginning of our journey.

What we really seek is Divine Love. When we begin to give and receive love with the Souls around us we will begin to experience love flowing through us. A lot o f this love will be human love but there will be a little Divine Love. The more we give, the more we receive. Divine Love is like God’s Love. It gives Love without expecting anything in return When we start giving without expecting anything in return we will begin to experience a little Divine Love.

Wishing you Divine Love on your spiritual journey through Christmas and through life.


*Ed Parkinson

Inspirational Gifts at the Marlay Park Christmas Market!

News

Prepare to be inspired by great gift ideas including arts and crafts, clothing, jewellery, music, books, plants and flowers. Plus, all the ingredients for a great Christmas Dinner will be on offer at the market stalls including meat, cheese, fish and fresh fruit and veg (don’t forget the brussels sprouts!)

Why not make a day of it and have a bite to eat while you shop, as the CoCo Christmas Market also features a wide range of hot foods – pork roast on a spit, international cuisines, hot soups, vegetarian selections and sweet treats will all be on offer!

Ed Parkinson will be there with a selection of his prints, framed and unframed. He will also have his Journey of Soul folder with 12 images (pictured above) for sale at €10 and his Calendar 2011 for €15 (see video below). He’ll be doing a special offer of both the folder and the calendar for just €20 (Save €5).


  The CoCo Christmas Market takes place Wednesday the 22nd & Thursday the 23rd December at Marlay Park – Courtyard of Marlay House, Grange Road, Dublin 14, between 11am – 7pm.

Inspirational Spiritual Journey Quotes

“The journey home to God is what life is about. In a sense it's not even a journey. It's an ongoing experience.”
Harold Klemp

“There is only one royal road for the spiritual journey...Love”
Sri Sathya Sai Baba


“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.”
Stephen R. Covey

“For me, in a very general way it has just become this metaphor for an open-ended, spiritual journey. I'm not a religious person, but as you age, there is sort of a heightened spiritual awareness where you value friends more and each day ... more as a gift that you are given to use in some effective way. So, I have consciously sought (to create) images that have boats in them, never knowing how they are going to end up.”
Jerry Uelsmann

“I believe that a worthwhile life is defined by a kind of spiritual journey and a sense of obligation.”
Bill Clinton

“Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we have learned here. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and the acceptance of love back into our hearts.”
Marianne Williamson

“We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.”
Proust

“The longest journey
Is the journey inwards
Of him who has chosen his destiny.”
Dag Hammarskjold

“We are earth people on a spiritual journey to the stars. Our quest, our earth walk, is to look within, to know who we are, to see that we are connected to all things, that there is no separation, only in the mind.”
Lakota Seer

“Work becomes our spiritual journey when our destination is no longer just becoming more successful or more wealthy, or getting a pay check, promotion, or job security, but when we also work to resolve a most fundamental question: Can we be at home in our lives - can we be open, honest, and at ease under all circumstances, moment by moment?”
Michael Carroll

“The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal. It can't be organized or regulated. It isn't true that everyone should follow one path. Listen to your own truth.”
Ram Dass

“The spiritual journey does not consist in arriving at a new destination where a person gains what he did not have, or becomes what he is not. It consists in the dissipation of one's own ignorance concerning one's self and life, and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual awakening. The finding of God is a coming to one's self.”
Aldous Huxley

“The real people nation have for centuries had the practice at birth of speaking the same first phrase to all newborns. Each person hears the same exact first human words: “We love you and support you on the journey.” At their final celebration, everyone hugs them and repeats the phrase again.”
Marlo Morgan

"Life is a journey, Love is the destination."
Victoria Marshall

Soul’s Connection

This is a new picture where I’m trying to illustrate the connection of Soul with the other elements within ourselves. Soul is really on an adventure in this world. It is a quest to discover itself by using our body, emotions, memories, mind and intuition to find out what It truly is. 

 

 

We have to get out of our mind to see spirit

Thought for the Week

“We have to get out of our mind to see spirit” said a friend of mind recently. I was a little shocked at this statement, so I asked him to explain. “In order to see Spirit in our lives we have to get out of our mind, get out of our mental way of thinking of things. Spirit doesn’t work logically like the mind does. To see things from minds perspective we have to use logic but Spirit doesn’t use logic and its ways are illogical so in order to see It we have to get out of our mind and look at life from a higher perspective, from Soul’s perspective.” He said, clarifying his statement.

We use our mind to make sense of our physical world, how it works and how to survive in it. If we were just physical beings that would be fine and indeed for people who just see themselves as physical and nothing more, it is fine. However we have many sides to ourselves beyond the physical. They are our emotions, our memories, our mind, our intuition and our true happy self, Soul.

Our mind oversees our memories, emotions and physical selves. Those of us who run our lives based on what is logical are using the mind to dictate our lives. Unless something makes logical sense we discard it because it makes no sense to us. If we operate our lives like this we are being run by our mind. To see beyond this logical mindset we have to get out of our mind.

Things that don’t make sense are happening all the time and they include:
An unexpected emotional reaction.
Having an instant like or dislike when we meet someone for the first time.
Thinking of someone a few moments before they contact us.
Doing something because it “feels” right.
Gut reaction – feeling an unease or comfort in our gut about something.

Our mind can be a tyrant
These are the things we ignore or laugh at if we are working from our mind. They still happen but they are not logical so we dismiss them as unreal. This is how our mind runs our lives. It discounts all these spiritual events happening in our lives until we become blind to them. We just don’t see them any more. They are not logical, they are not real and because they are not logical they can’t exist, as far as our mind is concerned.

If this is the way we think, our lives are being run by our mind. We need to get out of our mind to have a richer life experience. Our mind can be a tyrant, refusing to consider what is not logical and depriving us of insights, wisdom and love coming from the spiritual side of life.

How do we get out of our mind?
If we recognise that our lives are being run by our mind, how do we get out of our mind? Let us recognise that our mind is a very valuable and strong tool which we need to survive in our worlds. It helps us make decisions, find our way, work out solutions and make life efficient for us. We just need to allow the “illogical” and unproven elements and events that happen in our lives to become a part of our life. We need to tell our mind that these things that don’t make sense are still part of our life and we will have a happier existence if we can incorporate them into our lives. We don’t have to make sense of them but we can begin to look at them and see how they can contribute to our lives.

How will these illogical things benefit our lives?
If we allow ourselves have unexpected emotional reactions, we may be able to discover the source of the feeling. By allowing it to go its course and watching the events and reactions, within ourselves and with those around us, we may begin to understand ourselves better.

When we have an instant like or dislike to a person we’ve met for the first time, it cold be a gut reaction because we feel in our gut a sensation which that person triggers and it tells us they are nice or nasty. It could also be a triggered by a memory of being with them in another lifetime

Thinking of someone just before we meet them or the contact us unexpectedly is just being open to our spiritual connection with that person. Spirit is the glue which keeps life running. By tuning to Spirit we can become more sensitive to its messages and learn to go with its flow, the flow of life.

Doing things because it “feels” right is another connection with Spirit. The feeling is often not logical but we are pushed into action because our feeling is so urgent that we have to do it. This may be connected with going with the flow of life or based on a past life memory of what happened in similar circumstances previously. We instinctively know what we need to do and feel compelled to do it. Provided we do not encroach on someone or their property or harm them or ourselves, it can be an enlightening experience for all involved.

Let’s get out of our mind and enjoy the blessings the spiritual side of life can bring us.

*Ed Parkinson

Spend the year discovering inspirational stories and insights.

Inspirational Art Calendar 2011 for Sale, Now!

This calendar will inspire you every month of the year. Each picture was created for you, so you could find your own story and insights. While there are a few lines describing the thinking behind the picture, the reason it was created is to allow you explore your inner imaginative worlds. The pictures are a starting point to help you explore the worlds within your imagination. The details of the pictures act as catalysts and open doors so you can discover new vistas which you can explore at your leisure.

Each month has a large image which you can study and discover the small details which give hints to lead you to find your own individual story for each picture.

It is A3 size with a picture for each month by award winning artist Ed Parkinson. If you’d like to buy one just click this button.

 

It’s an ideal gift for the spiritually aware person in your life.

As an artist it is my job to create pictures but unless they mean something to you I’m not doing my job correctly. I hope you can get some insights, understanding and pleasure from the pictures.

There are only 100 of the calendars printed, so if you’d like one, don’t delay. Order now to make sure you get yours. They are only €15 each, including postage and packing. They will sell out quickly. Click this button to order your calendar now.

 

This video shows all of the pages in the calendar.

 

Inspirational Out of Mind Quotes

“Every problem contains a solution. The key is self-discipline and surrender of the mental habits to the Holy Spirit.”
Harold Klemp

"Are we out of our mind or is this really special?"
Jacques Crepineau

“Out of our Mind, we run into Limitation.
Out of our Heart, we have the Power of Creation.”
Gregory Campisi

“In fact, doesn't the very act of trying to "let go" require that we first bring to mind that which we want to be rid of? (Hmmmmm, bringing to mind what we want to be out of our mind . . . interesting strategy:-).”
Bill Crawford

“We will not “forget” so as to be able to rejoice; we will rejoice and therefore let those memories (of wrongs suffered) slip out of our minds!”
Miroslav Volf

“We must move "out of our mind" and dwell in our consciousness.”
Michael Tsarion

“Follow your heart, because if you always trust your mind, you'll always act on logic, and logic doesn't always lead to happiness.”
Anon

“Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life.”
Steven C. Hayes

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.”
Mark Twain

“There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.”
Albert Einstein

“I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.”
Gerry Spence

“A wise man changes his mind, a fool never.”
Spanish Proverb

“A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood.”
Chinese Proverbs

“Be master of mind rather than mastered by mind.”
Zen Proverb

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”
Aristotle

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes

“If your head tells you one thing, and your heart tells you another, before you do anything, you should first decide whether you have a better head or a better heart.”
Marilyn vos Savant

“It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.”
Rene Descartes

“We call a child's mind "small" simply by habit; perhaps it is larger than ours is, for it can take in almost anything without effort.”
Christopher Morley

“The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist.”
William Blake

“Religion is probably, after sex, the second oldest resource which human beings have available to them for blowing their minds.”
Susan Sontag

“The nature of mind is such that it judges, resists and rejects information that it cannot handle.”
Kathiroly Raj

Spend the year discovering spiritual stories and insights.

Spiritual Art Calendar 2011 for Sale, Now!

This calendar will inspire you every month of the year. Each picture was created for you, so you could find your own story and insights. While there are a few lines describing the thinking behind the picture, the reason it was created is to allow you explore your inner imaginative worlds. The pictures are a starting point to help you explore the worlds within your imagination. The details of the pictures act as catalysts and open doors so you can discover new vistas which you can explore at your leisure.

Each month has a large image which you can study and discover the small details which give hints to lead you to find your own individual story for each picture.

It is A3 size with a picture for each month. If you’d like to buy one just click this button.

As an artist it is my job to create pictures but unless they mean something to you I’m not doing my job correctly. I hope you can get some insights, understanding and pleasure from the pictures.

There are only 100 of the calendars printed, so if you’d like one, don’t delay. Order now to make sure you get yours. They are only €15 each, including postage and packing. They will sell out quickly. Click this button to order your calendar now.

 

This video shows all of the pages in the calendar.

 

Our awareness can brighten our world

Thought for the Week

Let’s be the light in our world

In recent years our awareness of spiritual things has been helped by a growing number of books, blogs, and people offering a message or insights into the spiritual side of life. The spiritual awakening around the world can be seen in books like, The Power of Now by Echart Thole, the many books by Haorld Klemp, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer and many others. There is also the question of 2012 and what possibilities it may bring to our world. Indeed some people suggest that 2012 is the reason for this spiritual awakening. Some observers state that it will mark a change in mankind from being homo sapiens to homo lumens. From the mentally aware man to the spiritually aware man.

Our awareness has also been helped by the ease of communications around the world. We very quickly hear of events, changes and developments in other parts of the world. Our awareness of our world and what is going on in it has seen a major increase over the last fifty years. If an earthquake happens or a volcano erupts on any part of the planet, we can hear about it within hours. Fifty years ago the same news would take several days to arrive and often it wouldn’t make it into the news headlines.

This awareness of physical events and our interconnection with the rest of world opens up the realisation that we are all affected by these events in some small or large way. We can help people affected by the event or we ourselves may be affected. We may respond emotionally to any of these events and depending on how close we are to the event we can even be affected in a physical manner.

A reflection
Our world is a reflection of our own awareness and how we see things. Our attitude colours everything we see. If we are open to seeing the goodness in the people and things around us, we will see love and kindness in our world.

The opposite is also true. If we just see the badness and evil in the world, that is what will be in our world., badness and evil. It is a simple but powerful fact that our awareness and attitude creates our own world. This helps explain why two people in the same situation can have opposite experiences. One can be quite content, the other quite miserable.

Lights in the world
As we develop our awareness of the goodness in life, we begin to see little lights in the world around us, like stars in the night sky. We may notice things like:
A smile from a neighbour.
Someone holds the door open for us.
We notice a funny incident with people.
Some one says “Thank You”.
We receive a small treat.
A favourite song plays for us.
We notice something beautiful in nature.

There are many lights shining in our lives, we just need to turn up our awareness to see them.

There are clouds
Having said that, our lives are not always smooth. There are clouds in every sky. We have lessons to learn and they can bring dark clouds, thunder and lightening. It can seem that our world is about to end, but with the knowledge and awareness that there is sun above the clouds, there is love in life, we will have the resilience to get through the dark days.

If we focus on any of the little stars in our life they will get bigger. It shines its light to all around it. By putting our attention on positive things they bring their positive aura into our lives. The little stars get bigger. After a while we notice our lives are brighter and more positive. It is like the sun has risen and is lighting up our world.

Can we be like a star?
Can we be like a star? Can we shine our light to all of those in our universe?
How can we shine? Here’s a list of ideas to add a little sparkle to our lives.
Smile.
See the love in other people.
Be willing to be of service to others.
Share a kind word with people around us.
Be grateful for small things.
Say “Thank You”.
Call someone to say Hello.
Give someone a little gift.

Here is a list of 50 Acts of Kindness.

These actions bring love into our world. It is like the sun shining through the clouds to warm our world. Our positive actions help blow away the clouds so the sun can shine through. Our awareness of the little stars of love and kindness will add little sparkles to our lives. They will brighten us and our world. If we focus on the stars they will grow into a sun.

Wishing you a sparkling life.

*Ed Parkinson

UEK Multimedia Artist

News

 

During the week I was in contact with the artist who runs the website Art in ECK.

http://artineck.jimdo.com/art-gallery/

He kindly put some of my pictures on the site.

I’ve been chatting with him a little. He doesn’t take himself all that seriously and he usually doesn't explain his art. He continues…

“To me art should speak for itself, that way there are as many interpretations at work as there are views. Also, in my case, the individual doing the art-thing is unimportant beyond being a channel or medium expressing something that may be a personal understanding of a situation and/or a reflection of a state of consciousness, and the skills to execute the art.

“I am trained in graphics and art and used to play music. At the moment I no longer perform music on stage, but produce it small scale since I have moved away from songs and jingles to sound engineering. Visually I work with 2D (painting, drawings and so on) as well as 3D art (sculptures, installations ...) as well as moving images (video and film). My main ambition in life is to break through to expand horizons for me as well as for whoever pays attention to my art.”

He goes by the name UEK Multimedia Artist. He has a video on YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocSyQ3qs0x0

He has his work on a number of websites:

http://sites.google.com/site/uekmultimedia/home

http://uekmultimediaartist.blogspot.com/
http://www.artbreak.com/work/show/39365-sound-in-a-box-uek
http://saatchionline.com/UEK

I agree with his attitude to art in that it is the art that is important, not the artist. He doesn’t offer explanations but for me the reason for doing a piece does seem to interest people but the story you, the viewer, see in is key. It is your story. Our job as artists is to bring the art into the world for people to see and experience. Hopefully it expands the viewer’s awareness or opens up a new understanding for you.

 

Inspirational Awareness Quotes

“An individual’s state of consciousness (awareness) simply means his ability to accept change in his life. It includes new thoughts and new feelings, and the new behaviour and actions that will naturally come as a result.”
Harold Klemp

“The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.”
Aristotle

“To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are”
Eric Hoffer

“Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.”
James Thurber

“The glut of information was dulling awareness, not aiding it.”
Jerry Mander

“The awareness that we are all human beings together has become lost in war and through politics.”
Albert Schweitzer

“Life is a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an indication of a future beyond knowledge, the quality that gives a touch of divinity to matter.”
Charles Lindbergh

“I am obsessive, also I am industrious. Besides, the time when you are most alive and most aware is in childhood and one is trying to recapture that heightened awareness.”
Edna O'Brien

“Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.”
Emily Post

“Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.”
Jim Rohn

“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.”
Lao Tzu

“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.”
Nathaniel Branden

“The awareness of our own strength makes us modest.”
Paul Cezanne

“Every human has four endowments- self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change.”
Stephen R. Covey

“These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness and worship without awareness.”
Anthony de Mello

“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.”
Abraham Maslow

“The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.”
Thomas Merton

“On this path effort never goes to waste, and there is no failure. Even a little effort toward spiritual awareness will protect you from the greatest fear.”
Bhagavad Gita

“Praying without ceasing is not ritualized, nor are there even words. It is a constant state of awareness of oneness with God.”
Peace Pilgrim