Life Lessons


"Figuring out our gifts in life is part of our journey to becoming enlightened human beings.” – Allison DuBois

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Tahoe Blues

Tahoe Lightening Storm from YouTube


On Wednesday my girlfriend Jill and I drove up to Tahoe for a day at the beach.  Felt kinda like playing hooky.  I made a big pasta salad & brought fruit.  She brought fruit and wine!  We were set.

By 10:30 am we had spread our towels on the beach.






At the time, there was only this one itty-bitty dark cloud.

We slathered on the sunscreen, popped open the umbrella and prepared to be dazzled!




 The beach filled up like Coney Island.

 
We had kids jumping over us, footballs flying past, Frisbee's overhead, BBQ's being lit, kayak's being launched, kids crying, mom's yelling & music blaring! 




Within an hour or so, we could hear thunder from behind the mountains.  

According to our calculations (you know the scientific one....onethousandone, onethousandtwo....etc.) we had at least 3 hours before the storm hit.

It only took 30 minutes.






 We were staying dry and enjoying the approaching storm while watching

 lightening to the left of us and lightening to the right. 

And listening to thunder all around.

Somehow Mt. Tallac divided the storm overhead so it stayed clear above us for quite some time.


It was still hot and felt like a tropical storm.




Finally the skies opened up and everyone ran to their cars.  

We did too with a glass of wine and waited out the summer storm in the beach parking lot.

Within 20 minutes it was just dribbling....and we did have our swim suits on....
so who cares if we get wet?

....and best of all most everyone else had left!


We stayed and read, swam, visited, ate and laughed.


It was a good day!








Also, it made for an amazing sunset on our drive home.


"Raise your words, not your voice.  
It is the rain that grows flowers not thunder."  -  Rumi

Monday, July 28, 2014

White Balance

Song - Nights in White Satin by The Moody Blues


The group of women painters that I paint and show with are named - BASA - Bay Area Studio Artists.  We are applying for a new show in Benicia entitled "White Balance". This is a technical camera term meaning basically - "whites change under different lighting situations so you need to adjust your camera to compensate."  You can read more about it here.





I personally love white.  There is so much color reflected in it.  I have white furniture, white dogs, white flowers, a white kitchen, etc.  I love to go to the nursery and get a flat of white Impatiens or white Petunia's. A white Hydrangea just knocks my socks off! 




I find a white garden very soothing.....

I immediately came home from our meeting and made a list of all of my favorite white's....

ballerina, owl, country church, dogwood, snow, boats, umbrella, tablecloth, chef, waiter, old car, coit tower, hollyhocks, surf, shells, lighthouse, SF Giant's in their home uniforms, Westie, bandstand, flowers, clouds, sheep, cows, cottage, waterfall, barns, milk truck, chickens, Iceland poppies, glacier,  wedding dress, horses, tennis shoes, apple blossoms, .......

A painting I just finished entitled "Summer"


Now some, well one, of the other painters just doesn't understand the joy and beauty of white.  She is a painter of color and there is nothing subtle about her beautiful work or her beautiful soul!  I will find it interesting to see what she comes up with for this venue.



"Women think of all colors except the absence of color.  I have said that black has it all.  White too.  Their beauty is absolute.  It is the perfect harmony."  --Coco Chanel
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