This is a good question for today.

It’s a perfect question for an ironically perfectly sad day.

Sad because we’ve had such a wonderful time here and now it’s time to go.

Sad because my kids are in the middle of tough things. A breakup for one…yeah, hard things.

Sad because even if I stayed, I couldn’t fix any of what they are going through.

Here I am weirdly thinking of happiness while I’m sad.

Five things in no order

Number one is an every day thing that I wish I did more often

A pedicure. A badly needed moment of self care, (I count driving myself ) Pure bliss. Foot massage, leg massage, pretty color

Number two is listening to my favorite music. Loud. In the car.

Three is a walk on the beach

Four: spending time with the people I love

Five might be a good meal

I have several other things, but these came to mind first.

This painting came to me as I was reflecting on the folktale called ‘The Raven who stole the Light’.

It’s a pretty simple story, one that survived generations of retelling, but is packed with metaphors for everyone and anyone in all different stages and ages of life.

An old man has hidden the light causing all to live in constant darkness.

He hid it in boxes, one inside another like Russian stacking dolls. He hid it because he was afraid. He was afraid to see. He was afraid to know whether his daughter was beautiful or not. He was afraid of what either might mean. So he banished light for himself and everyone and everything in the world.

One day a clever Raven decided to steal the light from the man.

A long convoluted plan was carried out to trick the man and his heart into allowing each box to be opened, until light was returned to the world.

I decided to devote a chunk of time every morning to set up my mind (and heart) for a good day.

I’m working on setting up a routine of meditation and intention so I can get out ahead of myself. I change it up every few days, but I’m experimenting with my own energy, basically so I will keep my cool no matter what happens.

Im finding that if I do, I am more present, more intuitive, and can see things from different perspectives.

I have been able to keep my heart open, or quickly stop it from closing (because as I learned, nothing is worth closing my heart over) under some challenging conditions.

Oh the sagas of grown kids.

We are leaving California this week for Connecticut. It’s been a wild ride and I will miss everyone and all of it so much.

I want to continue my quest for calm confidence. For keeping my own peace, for feeling my own luckiness and love in the world.

So I decided to make a positive-seeking morning routine for myself.

I had the privilege of working alongside kids for this collaboration. After I explained the project and what it was going to be for, (Kids for Peace), each picked up a paintbrush and methodically followed directions to the T. Each gave a little pause and sent their peaceful intentions into their carefully created painting. Love infused art by children. Great kids, great project.

This past few weeks I’ve had the privilege of working with kids at a few elementary schools. The kids very dutifully put their hearts and souls into their work. I loved how these children instinctively brought the right amount of light and seriousness to our project. These hearts were created from their hearts with a big intention to send love out into the world.

Many thanks to Jefferson Elementary, especially Mrs. Dunbar and Mrs third and fifth grade classes.

What would I do for free? My friend put it this way. ‘In kind.‘

We have been working away at kid collaborations for weeks. They are for the Kids for Peace gala auction. I’ve already donated two paintings and sent over all the written information. It’s a tad more complicated with the gallery representation, but an honor to be featured.

I helped my friend at two other schools, on top of my two classroom visits. Now we have to put it all into projects. Literally hours of work. It was fun to have a friend to be exhausted and excited with. We have ideas.

Sometimes work I do for free is lovely and meaningful. Being with other high energy, good intentioned others, working towards a common good, is rewarding.

Kids for Peace was founded on ideas of children for how to make the world a better place. Cofounder Jill wanted to help children see how they can do real things to make the world better for others.

I’ll never forget the boy who raised $1000 for a rain catcher water tank for an African village in Kenya. He and his grandmother flew with the group to work on the school. He got to see for himself the people he was helping, in very real time. He said this to me on the bus one morning, “It was a lot of work!” He told me how he had to be at school early every day for months to collect and advertise for his cause. Seeing him standing in front of the giant water tank was one Kenyan experience I’ll never forget.

Cool to see so many people come together to help one boy see precisely how he made a difference. It’s one of the things I love most about Kids for Peace. Not to mention the families and children with the new school, or all the school children in chapters all around the world.

The other day I spent most of the day helping out with more gala related projects. Spending time with this focused, talented group was a pleasure. Truly, if you want to find quality people to hang out with, I recommend doing a little work for free for a cause or two that you believe in.

There is a book called “Your Brain on Art”. It explains how the brain works better when it gets to experience art. Lots of scientific findings showing how neural pathways are enhanced and healthier when art is introduced.

I’ve always suspected. When I taught I would often collaborate with the teachers so their lessons would have the impact of art. It would help kids remember. I saw so many kids who got into a lot trouble in class, settle right down and work on art. I saw how interested and intuitive kids were when discussing art history.

I’ve done many community art projects over the years in many different cities and counties. It’s always nice to see the fun and lightness of everyone participating.

How would I improve my community? I would bring more art opportunities for kids of all ages.

A swan is symbolic.

This painting painted itself while I was enjoying experimenting with my Italian paints.

Clarity, beauty, purity, love, and strength, swans also represent the one of a kind, once in a lifetime unique nature of each life, each moment. Strong feminine energy, intuition and loyalty. These are a few things I learned about the swan as a symbol.

This painting is one of my favorites. It fell into place so perfectly. I wasn’t thinking about a swan. I wasn’t thinking at all. I was lost in the color, the creamy nature of these paints, my beautiful Italian paint brush. I was having a lovely artistic experience and this happened.

There was a time when peace seemed far away. I was inspired to paint intentions into several paintings. Doves symbolize peace. I like to believe that peace starts in the hearts and minds of each one of us. I believed then and feel like I know now, that it’s true. These doves flying up symbolize our hearts finding higher places of lightness and peace.

These two paintings were painted together. Doves represent peace. These doves represent the energy of peace and with olive branches in their beaks, hope. Energy lifting higher and feeling lighter is always helpful. My wish for everyone is light peaceful energy. Hope is the beginning. Peace is coming, peace can be conjured, we are creating peace with our kindness, with our love.