Aslan

A couple of times in the last few months I have found myself thinking of Aslan so I decided to re-read the whole Chronicles of Narnia series. It had been years since I last read it but the books transcend time and were again pure magic when I read them. Because of that Aslan remained in the back of my mind and the link between Him and Jesus being the Lion of Judah perculated away slowly in my mind. I thought of the childrens relationship with Aslan in the books and that easy friendship that existed between them and Him and my relationship with Jesus and the friendship I have with Him and I wanted to capture that in some way. So I ended up doing two artworks featuring Him from that perspective, I hope you like them.

Aslan – not tame, but kind

In my secret garden

 

 

HOPE

HOPE

I was asked to paint a picture during the worship time in a Church we were ministering at the other day. As I thought about what to paint, one word came to mind – the word “hope”. At first I was a bit taken aback as I wondered “how on earth do I portray hope?”. So I just started getting paint onto the canvas knowing I would be guided as I went.

As I painted I thought about what the word “hope” meant. To paint “hope” meant I had to also paint the stuff life is made of – the stuff in which we sometimes find ourselves needing hope – health, finances, jobs, family – all these and more can be areas where we need fresh hope – I would use colours to portray the emotional feeling of these. I knew I didn’t want to paint a real situation but to do something abstract, something conceptual that could be read differently by different viewers, allowing them to feel the emotional substance of hope.

As I thought about ‘hope’ I realized that worldly hope is fragile – it’s a wishful thinking type of hope with no real guarantee of anything good really happening. Scripturally hope is far different – the hope God gives is robust, strong, guarantees supply, and turns any situation into something beautiful. In scripture hope isn’t wishful thinking, its confident joyful expectation of something good about to happen.

It is a joyful expectation that something good is going to happen for you because God is good. Scriptural hope boldly delivers, and it comes with the guarantee of God himself behind it. Hope isn’t just an idea, a concept, it has spiritual substance that goes to work within us, and it’s also found in a person – Christ! Christ is our hope and he is our guarantee of hope.

So in the painting the first couple of layers represents the “stuff” we go through in life so it is all sorts of colours, some dark and heavy, some light and joyful. yellow, green, yellow ochre, prussian blue, slivers of magenta, purple and some gold leaf. A lot of those colours no-one will ever see but they are there just as in life -there’s stuff people see and there’s underlying stuff; but the underlying stuff lays down the foundation for the seen to be built on. The top layers are done in white, cream, yellow ochre and little flecks of gold. This top layer represents both hope and glory overlaying all else causing the underlaying layers to become something beautiful – it represents God’s hope at work within us – making all things work together for good – coming together to present something beautiful, full of depth and rich in the fullness of Christ’s life within us. “Christ in us, the hope of glory” – Col 1:27

making your dreams your reality – part 2

“Dream Book” series – post 3

Making your dreams your reality – part 2

This is the third entry in the “Dream Book” series of posts the first post can be read here and the second one read here.

Make a plan – be strategic and intentional  – what is the process needed to achieving your goal, what steps do you need to take. Maybe seek guidance or counsel from others who have achieved their dreams, do you need a mentor or coach to help you get there?

Think long-term but have mid-term goals as well. Dreams don’t come to fruition overnight, it’ll take time and effort to fulfil your dream. Don’t look for short cuts; allow the process to happen because along the way you’ll learn valuable lessons. Do make mid-range goals as well. What are some things that will show you that you are making progress and are do-able in the short term. Reward yourself when you achieve them.

Be disciplined. There will probably be a time when you wonder if it’s worth it but your dream is waiting for you and discipline will help you get there when enthusiasm fades while laziness will sabotage your dream.

Be your own best friend. The person you listen to most is yourself. What do you tell yourself? Are you kind to yourself or are you always beating up on yourself? Ditch the negative self-talk.

Make sure you keep healthy. This is important, bad dietary and exercise habits sap your strength. Find out what gives you energy and what takes it away. Write them down. Do one and avoid the other.

 Stay grateful. A couple of days a week make a list of 5 things you are grateful for or that touched you. Say thank you to the people involved, say thank you to God.

Choose a life of service. Make it a habit to invest in others, help someone on their way and someday someone will help you on your way. Encourage others in their dreams.

What are some of the things that may stop you achieving your dream?

Holding onto the past – past failures in things you’ve tried or even past successes can sometimes stop us moving forward. Past failures can make us doubt our abilities and ourselves and past successes can be hard to let go of because we may fear losing what we’ve already got.

Failure to continue to learn and grow will stifle your success. Not just in your chosen area – keep abreast of developments in the world and learn new things. If nothing else it’ll keep your brain healthy.

Lack of vision – thinking you’re doing okay and that you don’t need to change anything may be a slow killer but it will kill your dreams.

Willingness to bow to other people’s reason – there will always be people who will disagree with your dreams, don’t let their opinions negate yours; they are not in control of your future you are!

 An uncontrolled thought life – keep control of your thought life – it has even more power to stop you achieving your dream than circumstances do. Keep negative thoughts in check. Develop a positive attitude.

 Inability to discipline the things you say both internally and externally can influence your ability to achieve your dreams even if for no other reason than people don’t like being around people that don’t discipline their speech. Both swearing and gossip can and will affect your colleague’s ability to trust you especially in business and serving people.

I hope these tips help towards making your dreams your reality. Have fun dreaming, making your Dream Book and working towards making your dreams come true.

making your dreams your reality

“Dream Book” series – post 2

This is the second entry in the “Dream Book” series of posts – the first can be read here.  “Making your dreams your reality” is a long blog post so I’ll post it over a couple of days. Don’t forget to check out the other part of it tomorrow as well.

Making your dreams your reality – part 1

So you’ve made a start on creating your Dream Book, what then? How do you get your dream out of the book into your reality? There’s probably lots of different ways of achieving this – the following are some guidelines that I’ve used but I’m sure you’ll think of other things too once you start to think about it.

Not every point listed below will apply to every dream but many of them will. Just use the ones that apply to your dream and put the others aside for another dream. Also don’t stop dreaming just because you start to work on fulfilling a dream. Dream big dreams everyday – use your imagination – it’s your dream centre. Ask yourself “what if?”

Make your dream book – see my previous blog entry “get that dream outta your head” for the details on how to make a Dream Book.

Write The Vision – Now you’re underway in creating your Dream Book take some time to write out the vision you have. What is it you want to achieve, what’s your dream? There’s a verse in the Bible that talks about the purpose for writing down vision. It says, “Write down the vision and make it plain…that those who read it may run (with it)”

Habbakuk 2:2

Writing it down gives it substance and brings it out of the abstract thought world into your current reality. It sets things in motion, now you can see it before you and can begin to take other steps toward achieving it. Now you can begin to run with it.

Writing it down will help you give words to exactly what you want to achieve. Be specific about it – “I want to travel overseas” or “I want to own my own business” are too nebulous, they could mean anything. Where do you want to travel? What do you want to see, to experience? What type of business do you want, what sort of people are you serving/selling to? You may end up with a statement that looks like this “ I want to travel from Italy to China following the old Spice Road that Marco Polo travelled, seeing Europe and the Orient without all the tourist trappings” or  “I dream of owning my own business providing quality and quirky handcrafted goods that people would be proud to own, display and use in their homes and their daily life.”

Write down where you are doing your dream i.e. town, suburb, who you are doing your dream with.

Write an affirmation – write your statement again – this time, write it as if you are actually living it now. This statement will become an affirmation you can speak over yourself and dream to. e.g. “I own and  run a successful business providing quality and quirky handcrafted goods that people are proud to own, display and use in their homes and their daily life.” Speak positive affirmations over yourself often regarding your dream.

Believe in it Your passion and belief are what will make your dream your reality. Let it build within you – looking through your Dream Book daily will help this along. Determine to make your dreams your reality.

Visualize yourself doing it. Keep that dream before your vision internally as well as externally. Put pictures on the fridge, on a mirror. Begin to populate your vision, see yourself doing it.

Take a first step –Research is a great first step, read books on your dream, Google it and talk to others who have done what you want to do.

Ask yourself – What is needed to make my dream happen? What finances are involved? How can you get that finance? Can you work extra hours or maybe sell something? Do you need to get some training? Does your dream involve other people; in what way? Do you need a formal agreement or contract sorted out?

Ask yourself – What within me needs to change in order for me to achieve my dream? What habits, what character traits? List your positive points and your negative ones – be honest with yourself; own what you’re good at and change what needs to be changed. Get help if you need to do so in order to make lasting changes. Are you committed to achieving this dream no matter what obstacles happen (as they will)?

Well, that’s some great first steps that will get you started on seeing your dream become your reality. I’ll post the second part of this post tomorrow and that will look at some more tips for making your dream a reality as well as some of the things that can stop our dreams becoming our reality.

get that dream outta your head!

“Dream Book” series post 1

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”. Eleanor Roosevelt

Every one of us has dreams. It may be of overseas travel, that new car, a home of our own or seeting up in business for yourself. Most of those dreams are within our potential to fulfil but so often they stay trapped in our head in the ‘wouldn’t it be nice’ box. We need to bring that dream from our brain and heart into something tangible otherwise it will stay a dream. Creating a dream book is a great way to take that first step towards seeing that dream become a realty. In your dream book you can think as big as you want. In this stage don’t reign in your imagination or begin to get too specific with the finer details – they will come later in the planning and strategy phase.

Dream books are great also for planning a family holiday – get the kids involved; or you can make a dream book as a couple – holiday or ministry dreams – working together on it brings a sense of ownership and team.

Creating a dream book 

• Find a book or folder (loose leaf is best so pages can be rearranged). Gather pictures and words to illustrate your thoughts. Make it fun and attractive. Put your personality into it, just like your journal.
• Use as many of your senses as you can, pour your heart out onto paper. Record yourself speaking about your dream. Sew or embroider something for your book. Use photos
• Write down ideas as they come to mind; where, when, who with, ideas about training etc. Record websites that inspire you in your dream and visit them often.
•  Dream books can be about anything, have multiple dream books on different dreams. These are not just the secret longings of a trapped imagination – they are your dreams and they stand in danger of being lost or eroded by the busyness of daily living.
• Look at your dream book often, let it inspire your thoughts and prayer life. Keep the fires of hope and faith alive knowing that God will give you the desires of your heart.

“Your imagination is the God given human capacity to construct and enter into mental pictures of divine reality. We are able to inhabit the mental pictures we create and thence anticipate the delight of finally entering the greater reality to which they correspond.” Alister McGrath

In the next entry I’ll look at what you can do after you’ve made your dream book, what are some of the things you can do to make your dream your reality.

Thankfulness & creativity – the link

it’s been a while since I posted here but I am still alive and functioning, i just got real busy and some things slid down the priority pile. but here I am again, my batteries are refreshed and my creativity is flowing… sounds great doesn’t it? and it feels great too!

i have just finished the first draft on a new book about how to grow and enhance your creativity. it’s funny – but when you start to write you realise you know a heck of a lot more than you thought. you just are so used to putting it into practise unconsciously that you don’t stop to think what you’ve learnt along the way. you also find out how much you don’t know lol, and how much you can still learn! so the new book is in it’s infancy but should be reality fairly soon. i’ll let you know when it’s ready.

today – can i suggest that you take some time to think about something you are currently involved with doing and consciously be thankful for the things you’ve learnt that you’re putting into practise in that task. gratitude is such a positive creativity booster and mood booster you’ll find that your day will even go better because you took a moment to be thankful.

you also find that your task will go better too.  i believe there is a link between thankfulness and creativity. thankfulness releases feel good stuff (endorphins) into your body and also, i believe boosts your brain function for a period of time afterwards. i’m not a scientist or medical person but i do know how i feel and how differently i see things when i am in a good mood.

if things are going hard for you at the moment, take that time to be thankful for the good things in your life and you’ll find the grey cloud will lift and you’ll see with new eyes.

make thankfulness a part of your lifestyle and you’ll see changes in your life. you may have to be deliberate to start with and you may have to do this a lot until it becomes a part of who you are but it’s worth persevering for.

i used to be a pretty negative person; life had been real hard and abusive to me growing up and it had affected the way i saw everything. then one day i realised that if something didn’t change i would continue to live a negative and depressive life. so i pulled up to my memory the image of a positive person (a fictional image but still a strong one) a young girl called pollyanna. did you ever see that movie – it’s about a young girl who always sees the positive in every situation and always hopes for the best and how her life affects everyone around her. i decided i wanted to be like that – to learn to see the good in every situation and to become a positive person and so i asked god for help to become that person!

it has taken conscious effort and many backwards and fowards moments but my whole life has undergone a huge shift because of it. i don’t get it right all the time of course but i am much improved to how i was in my earlier years and i hope my story and my life is an encouragement to others. an encouragement that they are not stuck in a box, imprisoned behind bars, destined to seeing the same view forever, but there is a whole different outlook to be found.

it reminds me of that old story about the two prisoners, one with hope and one without; they both stood at their barred window looking out into the night, one saw only the bars while the other saw stars.

More T-Shirt fun

I’ve loved designing the poke-a bit-of-fun-at-ourself Christian t-shirt slogans. They remind me that God gave us a sense of humour and wants us to have fun. Sometimes we just take ourselves too seriously don’t we! So here’s the other ones I’ve done over the last couple of days.

Hope they gave you a wee laugh.

T-shirt slogans

My friends and I were laughing last night about t-shirt slogans and tossed a few around including the first one featured below. I know that one would run into copyright issues if I tried to make it for real but it was fun to design.

Sometimes I think that as Christians we take ourselves too seriously here’s a few slogans that laugh at us a little and would maybe make great t-shirt designs.

Quotable quotes – on writing

i was looking at my vast collection of quotes the other day – sometimes i love to just read them and ponder them, sometimes i look to them for inspiration and sometimes like today they are the inspiration. here’s a few quotes on writing and creativity to get you thinking.

“you never know what you will learn ‘til you start writing. then you discover truths you never knew existed.” – anita brookner

“let your mind alone and see what happens”.  – virgil thomson

“to me the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the inner music that words make”. truman capote

‘writing is my refuge. it’s where i go. it’s where i find that integrity i have.’ – charles. b. johnson

“the best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.” – agatha christie

‘writing is the only thing that when i do it, i don’t feel i should be doing something else” – gloria steinem

“the creative power cannot be repressed, one must give vent to what one feels”.  – vincent van gogh

“life is not long for anybody and the problem is only to make something of it.”  – vincent van gogh

“it is a pity that as one gradually gains experience, one gradually loses ones youth”. –  vincent van gogh

“you should be writing something from your life, from the depths of your soul. there is more in you than this,” he said, “if you have the courage to hear it.” – louisa may alcott – from the film adaptation of little women

“humanity is in your tears. “no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.” – robert frost

but maybe…

grandchildren can teach you a thing or two about life! one of the things i love about my granddaughter eden is her huge, optimistic hope. going past the train station the other day i said “no train today” and she said “maybe…”. another time – “sorry darling we don’t have any juice” “but maybe…” “maybe” is one of her favourite sayings and everytime i hear it i am encouraged to believe that maybe…..

it is all too easy as adults and even teens sometimes to let go of hope and optimism. certainly for creatives we can get in a rut where it seems like our creativity is  shut down and we get what is called artists or writers or whatever “block”. our world and belief in ourself spirals down and we somehow think that we will never find our way out of the rut. but maybe, “maybe…” should be our maxim. here’s a couple of quotes to help keep your “maybe…” alive.

the first is from a fav film “Princess Bride” the film where “maybe” reigns.

“we’ll never survive!” “nonsense. you’re only saying that because no one ever has.” – William Goldman, The Princess Bride

the second was found somewhere, but i forgot to take note of where sorry.

maybe, just maybe, there is a little creative magic about to be loosed from your life… just believe and tell yourself “maybe…”.