My gratitude journal started out as a quick list every night. I just got in the habit of listing 5 things for which I was thankful each night before bed; often it was the same, or a similar list, each time. Husband, daughter, a roof over our heads, and the last two varied, but it was a less than fascinating list.
Then I started putting some effort into mixing things up. I didn’t just say I was thankful for my husband, I got specific and mentioned a quality or something he did or said. Same with my daughter – and many other frequent flyers on my gratitude list. Soon, my nightly entries morphed from a quick five-word-list to an accounting of my day that was framed around an expression of gratitude.
I’ve kept a journal for most of my life, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, but once I added the gratitude element, the journal took on a different, more energetic and pro-active tone – it’s my autobiography written through the lens of gratitude.
I found myself looking for things throughout the day, taking note of things – ooh, that’s going on my list tonight!
Still, there are days when I have to look really, really hard
There have been times when the world just falls apart around me, and yet still I can always find at least five things.
I resisted this idea for a while – it’s essentially dishonest, I thought, to disregard everything that’s going wrong. But that’s where I was wrong. It is not a matter of disregard.
A few months ago, my husband had a medical crisis while he was in Istanbul. It was a stressful and terrifying experience, but the relief I felt once we got him from the airport to safely admitted to the hospital was palpable. To acknowledge that relief underscores, rather than dismisses, the significance of that crisis.
This process doesn’t disregard the darkness, it looks for the light. My gratitude practice exercises the sames skills I use to find solutions to problems. I imagine there are worse mental pathways to make habitual.
And it is becoming a habitual practice.
Not to long ago, I took to my journal ready to whine and complain about everything that was going wrong, but out of habit, I had written the word “Gratitude” at the top of the page.
I couldn’t fill a page with whining when it had the word gratitude at the top. So I decided to go ahead and do my gratitude list first, and whine later on another page.
I never got around to whining. That’s when I knew my gratitude practice was really working.
…
As we head into the month of Thanksgiving, and tonight especially, there is so much for which to be thankful, and it does seem to be the topic of the hour. Today, among so many other things that bless my life, I am thankful for my gratitude practice.
I know that the idea of a gratitude practice is starting to gain some popularity. Anyone else out there make a practice of it? Any thoughts?
On the way to the Halloween party, she started to have second thoughts about her costume.
“But, I don’t want to be a dinosaur ballerina.” I assured her that she didn’t have to wear her costume.
“I want to be a camel.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t have a camel costume.”
“Do you have a crocodile costume?”
By the time we got to the party, and she saw that all the other kids were wearing costumes, she was thrilled to be a dinosaur ballerina again.
This was the annual Halloween party for the kids at Gilda’s Club. Gilda’s Club is an amazing supportive resource for people whose lives have been impacted by cancer: the patient, and their family and friends as well. Their kids program is wonderful. Events like this kids party allow kids to make friends with other kids who have cancer in their lives, and build a support network of peers who understand what they are going through. The get a chance to be in a situation where having a mom with cancer is normal, and they’re not the weird one.
Gem is flourishing in this environment.
She loved the craft station, and is so proud of the mask she made.
After a thorough consultation with the make-up artist, she finally decided on whiskers to complement her ensemble.
Sitting still for the face painting was the hardest part. It tickles.
The best sight of the evening was watching her perform an interpretive dance to the Halloween music. Then she upped the bar and performed her dance inside the haunted house.
This is the first time she’s really gotten into Halloween, and she LOVED it.
Women are often well represented in art museums, or at least their bodies are. They are pinned right there to the wall.
Ensemble of posters, Guerrilla Girls American artists, active since 1985 variable Centre Georges Pompidou, Museé national d’art moderne, Paris, T2011.206.101
Women artists are not so well represented
The current show at the Seattle Art Museum takes aim at that issue. Anchored on the groundbreaking Paris exhibition, Elles: Women Artists from the Centre Pompidou, Paris, Elles puts the focus on the vision and craft of female artists. Just as our understanding of history changes, expands, and takes on new depth and texture when the voices of women are added, so to does the addition of female artists change our understanding of art history, as well as informing history itself.
This show does not attempt to represent women from all cultures everywhere throughout history. The scope and breadth of such an ambitious project could no more adequately represent women around the world, than it could men. Just because female artists were largely ignored does not mean they were not prolific. This is a showcase of mostly European female artists in the 20th and 21st Centuries. There is a need to address art created by women of other cultures and times, but that necessitates not just one, but many more shows. I hope someone gets busy curating some of those shows soon.
The Seattle Art Museum is coordinating with a number of organizations and venues throughout the Seattle area to celebrate women artists, ongoing through January 2013, including musical events, films, lectures, and a symposium.
Espagnoles, (1920-1924) Oil on canvas Natalia Gontcharova Russian, 1881-1962 36 1/4 x 28 3/4in. (92 x 73cm) Overall h.: 37 3/8in. (95cm) Overall w.: 29 15/16in. (76cm) Centre Georges Pompidou, Museé national d’art moderne, Paris; AM 3111 P, T2011.206.135
Elles showcases the work of more than 75 women artists. I’m tempted to wax on philosophically about each of these pieces that I’ve selected, but each time I return to these images, I have something additional to say. I’ll never get this post up at this point, so I’ll just leave you with a few of my favorites. If I could take one home and just sit and stare at it all day long, it would Espagnoles (above). It just pulls me in.
La Chambre Bleue (The Blue Room), 1923 Oil on canvas Suzanne Valadon (born Marie-Clémentine Valadon) (born Marie-Clémentine Valadon) French, b. 1865, Bessines-sur-Gartempe, France; d. 1938, Paris, France 35.4 x 45.7 inches (90 x 116 cm) Centre Georges Pompidou, Museé national d’art moderne, Paris State purchase and attribution 1924, T2011.206.1
On the other hand, there is, La Chambre Bleue (The Blue Room), above. I hated this piece at first. It was featured on much of SAM’s promotional material, and I couldn’t figure out why. It really bugged me. But, the more I look at it, the more I see. The picture has grown on me, and now it’s one of my favorites.
The Frame, (1938) Oil on aluminum, reverse painting on glass and painting frame Frida Kahlo Mexican, 1907-1954 11.2 x 8.1 inches (28.5 x 20.7 cm) Centre Georges Pompidou, Museé national d’art moderne, Paris State purchase and attribution, 1939, T2011.206.48
Frida Kahlo lived in my imagination as a larger than life figure. Her self portrait on the wall, at eye level, stopped me short. It was so much smaller than I expected. And tangible. Suddenly, behind the tiny painted glass, she was less mythical, and more a woman, with hopes and dreams and fears and insecurities. She became real. And maybe that’s part of the point of the exhibit, as well. Beyond drawing our attention to these amazing works by female artists, this show reminds us that women in art, whether subject, artist, consumer, or all three, are individual people. Not objects, myths, or concepts; just people, connecting with other people.
FTC disclaimer: I received free admission to the Seattle Art Museum, and permission to take photographs of the exhibits.
It’s checkup time for me again. This time, it was with my radiation oncologist.
Gem has spent most of her life going to the doctor with Mommy. She’s an old pro.
She brings one of her “friends” – today, we brought Tolee, the Koala Bear.
Get him all comfortable, and make sure he feels safe.
And since doctor visits mean a lot of waiting, we pass the time with a little dance.
And a little more dancing.
Maybe we’ll just rest a bit.
And then while the doctor talks to Mommy, Gem borrows her tools to give Tolee a thorough examination.
And me? I’m still improving. The doctor said I look fabulous! I’ll take that. I need to wear my lymphedema sleeve more. I already knew that. I need to get back into physical therapy. check. The fatigue is normal, and should continue to decrease over the next few years. Sigh. And, unless something comes up, we’re going to go a full year till my next radiation checkup!
I don’t enforce a silent nap time. In fact, around here, nap time is ‘learn how to make your own fun, and maybe rest a little bit, while Mommy tries to get her work done‘ time.
So when the happy-fun “Woohoo!” sounds wafted from her bedroom, I just smirked and went back to work. She’s doing a great job learning how to make her own fun, I thought.
From the looks of her trashed room, I imagine she had quite a lot of fun.
Work Hard ~ Play Hard ~ Sleep Hard
One of these days, we’re going to have to install a video camera in her room. I’d love to know what her play looks like when she thinks no one is looking.
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