Merry Follows Gratitude

 

Have you ever noticed that the season when we focus on gratitude is always followed by the season when we talk about being merry?  And then there is the joy - that elusive thing we equate with this season. You see it everywhere on cards and signs and ornaments.  But where does it come from?  Or more properly, from whence does it come?  :-)

 I think it is difficult to be merry without being grateful.  When I am finding my thoughts running toward complaints rather than what I have for which to be thankful, I do not have much of a merry heart.  On the other hand, when joy is found in even the most simple of pleasures, then gratitude and merriment is the result. 

So, is joy at the beginning of the equation or at the end?  Does joy produce a grateful attitude that results in a merry heart?  Or does gratitude produce merriment which results in joy?

I propose that it is a circle.  Sometimes we are grateful out of our joy.  And sometimes, we are grateful out of shear determination to be so.  But, in the end, there is joy. 

And then there is the question of what joy really is.  Is it happiness or a sense of peace that is deeper than just being happy.  I vote for the later.  I find that I can have joy even when I don't have the merry. This is because of the One whose Spirit lives deep in my heart - even when I don't act grateful.
 Eph 3: 16-19


Wind and Honey Creations
Creative Pencils - Online Drawing Lessons

 

I've shared this poem before but its been a long time.  It is my favorite.  It is by ee cummings.  May we all be filled with as much awe of what is around us as we await the changes of the seasons.  One of the things I love the most about cummings is his freedom to write in a unique way that goes against the grain of standard rules.  He makes his point by doing so.

 

i thank You God for most this amazing

day;for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth

day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing 

breathing any--lifted from the no

of all nothing--human merely being 

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

ee cummings

 

 

Wind and Honey Creations
Creative Pencils - Online Drawing Lessons

Black Friday News

 

You have the opportunity this weekend to save some money while staying at home in your comfy chair!  Just think... Black Friday savings and no crowds.  You don't even have to get up early.  How fun is that?!

Creative Workshops is having a Black Friday sale.  If you purchase my Pencils 101 workshop, you will get the Pencils 201 workshop for 1/2 price!!  You could buy it for yourself and then again for a gift to a friend.  Then the two of you could work through it together.  That would be lots of fun.  You can inspire each other.

And then at The Graceful Artist, there are 3, count them..., THREE drawings for prizes over the Black Friday weekend.  Each prize is a stash of enticing art supplies.  Oh, the things you could create!  You can find out all about those prizes and how to get your name in the pot several times, by going to the Graceful Artist blog.

Have a very blessed day of thanks whether you are in the USA celebrating the tradition of Thanksgiving or if you are just a person filled with gratitude.

Wind and Honey Creations
Creative Pencils - Online Drawing Lessons

Happy Day of Thanks

 

I have several friends that have been posting a gratitude list daily on Facebook.  I love that.  I love the idea of perpetually finding something new to be thankful for.  I love the thought of being intentionally thankful.  I wish I had done that too.  But I was busy and, at least mentally, in a whirlwind.  So I didn't do it.

I'd like to make a small list here.  I'll keep it short for your sake.  : )
 

I am thankful:   

1. I have a daughter with whom I can still laugh and have fun.
2. I have a son who has grown to be a man I respect.
3. I have a husband who loves me still even though the years have begun to show on me. 
4. I have the privilege to live the life of an artist with creativity all around me.
5. for my local students and my online students from all over the world.  What fun they are to know!
6. for the honor to have rescued my sweet furry friends and to enjoy their company daily in my studio.
7. for my faith.  It is what sustains and energizes me.
8. for technology.  Although it exasperates me, I could not accomplish my business without it.
9. for the many many miraculous things I have seen develop in those I love in the last year.
10. for the perpetual and amazing patience of my God.

And thank you, my dear blog friends, for joining me here from time to time.  May your holiday time be blest with delight, gratitude, and grace.




Wind and Honey Creations