Ten Days Later

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“Daddy, this is the first day we don’t have a thing to do after school.” Ten days ago I posted about how exhausted I was. We were moving and it was not easy. Moving is never easy. IMG_5476.JPGYou win in some ways and you lose some things. I believe that it is mostly wins. The things you lose are opportunities to move forward. Now I don’t have studio space to work on my sculptures, but that could be just enough motivation to look forward to open a studio where people can see the art displayed, learn, and have fun with art. For now, I am having a lot of fun traveling and extending the sculpting and painting parties outside of Milford. IMG_5595.JPGYes, I still do it in Milford and it is going wonderfully. During the moving process I also had the chance to present on Online Media Tips for Artists, to participate in a basketball tournament, help dome friends, take the kids to their basketball games, and continue with our family activities. Ten days later I am writing again. I am thankful for the messages and the people still visiting the page waiting for the next post. IMG_5613.JPGI also keep drawing daily, because not having a studio space is not an excuse for not having studio time. Soon I’ll be sharing about other wonderful things happening this year.

There is no reason to be afraid or resistant to changes in life. We are changing every second of every minute, of every hour, of each day. Trying to maintain a constant life without change is virtually impossible. We age and that in itself is constant change. When I look at the wins and loses of change I feel confident that changing is for better. Transitions are always difficult and it is possible that stress and anxiety could cloud our vision and disorient us. It is important to take a moment to rest, consider the current situation, and focus on the next steps toward the future. In the process we might have to reconsider our goals and plans. The plans we made and the goals we set at the beginning of the year might not apply as planned. We need to review, revise, and adapt. Flexibility towards change, coping skills, and self-regulation are important aspects to succeed in life. Take a chance and move on.

Gravity

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I get compliments on my art when it shows the effects of gravity on the female body. The term I see the most in the comments is “real women”. These compliments come generally from females. I believe it is simple physics and the fact that there are so many body types. Where there is mass there will be the effect of gravity. I honestly don’t like when things that should fall are trying to levitate against nature. I consider natural as more beautiful. This is accepted by many women in theory but for some reason when it comes to judge themselves, this reality is no longer accepted. Why is that? I wish I had an answer.

IMG_5181.JPGAround 85% of my followers in social media and about 95% of the participants of the sculpting and painting parties are females. From people who acquired my art so far is a very similar statistic. When he buys a piece of art from me is for her. You can see my gravitation towards the female figure in my art and I think that is a connection most women perceive, but it is not only with my art. Back in college it was me and a lot of girls in almost every class. They could talk about anything shamelessly and even involve me in the conversations. That still happens today. Teaching or taking a class I am generally the only male. Recently, my wife took me to a gathering that looked like a girls’ night out. Allegedly, other guys were invited but I was the only one there.

IMG_5198.JPGI was a manager on a OB-GYN office therefore no female conversation is scary to me. Nevertheless, I keep trying to convince myself that it is not weird at all and that I am used to it. Honestly, it feels like some kind of calling I can’t still fathom. We all, not only women, need to understand that we are all different for a reason, that nature and natural is a beautiful thing. If you are 40 and you don’t feel or look 20, there is a very simple explanation for that: You are not 20. We age, we change, and gravity affects us all. A ‘perfect body’ is ephemeral fantasy and trying to ‘fix it’ doesn’t make It more beautiful. Moreover, no matter how much we try to fix it we will never be satisfied, because the problem is not on the outside but in the inside.

Motivation

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Motivation has many faces and sounds to move us into action, to keep us from giving up, and to stay in the path. It is precisely in those moments when motivation injects that extra something in our minds pushing us away from idleness. In occasions it pushes us to rest, to take time, to breath, and consider the path we are taking, and to reconsider our intentions. Motivation can call us to begin, continue, or stop. It is that wake up call; that extra injection of strength.

Motivation comes from internal and external sources. Many people through time and effort develop the tools to be self-motivated. People who go through hard times to reach goals are generally the ones who motivate themselves when the circumstances are opposing and external motivation lacks. These are the ones that despite being fighting against the world they still find a way to come victorious. The lack of external motivation is the first source of internal motivation and the fuel to prove something to themselves and others.

On the hand, people who lack self-motivation are those who do not fight to reach goals. At times those individuals have antecedents of being people who get what they want easily. When things get difficult they just quit since internally they have no reason to complete what they started and, in some cases, no reason to begin in the first place. It is possible that external motivations are of little effect on people who lack the desire to accomplish in the first place. It requires a complete change and renovation of the mind to see these people take action.

There are others self-motivated individuals who find external motivation as support. Self-motivated individuals who know what they want and where they are going, appreciate the external. It is always encouraging to find others who push them to improve, and to become better. These external motivators are watching and expecting great things because of appreciation, friendship, admiration, and camaraderie. To all of you, I thank you.

What If

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What if we could see the results of our effort before we begin? Would that makes us finally begin working on that project we have in mind? What if we knew for certain that our project could touch and change the life of one person? Would we still do it? Sometimes all we need is a wake up call; the words of a friend or a stranger to see beyond the present, to recognize our abilities and capacities, and do it. What if that only person we touch with our work is motivated to do something and as a result hundreds if not millions of people are touched and transformed?

Many people know Billy Graham and how through his preaching thousands of people came to Christianity. Many lives have been transformed by God through the efforts of this man. However, very little is said of the person who spoke the gospel with him. Who motivated Bill Gates to stand firm in his ideas many perceived as ridiculous? How about Albert Einstein, the Wright brothers, Nikola Tesla, Leonardo da Vinci, George Washington Carver, and many others? Who motivated them to pursue their ideas? Nick Vujicic was born with no legs and no arms and is one of the greatest motivators of our time.

I can keep adding to the list of people who are known for changing lives through their inventions and their words. You might know many people who might not be famous neither have a Wikipedia page but served as motivation to you. Maybe you are the motivator of someone who is going to change the world. Maybe you are the one who is going to be motivated to make a difference in many people.

Dreaming Wide Awake

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We live, while we see the sun,
Where life and dreams are as one;
And living has taught me this,
Man dreams the life that is his,
Until his living is done.

Segismundo’s monologue in Life is a Dream by Calderon de la Barca explores the belief that we live in some kind of virtual reality state. The same concept was presented in The Matrix movies. We are living in one state dreaming the state we think we are living. It sounds like Inception too: a dream within a dream, within a dream. Flash back to Alice in Wonderland as well. Reverie is a dream state, but it doesn’t have to bring only ethereal consequences. You have the capacity through symbolic interpretation to dream wide awake and achieve earthly results.

 A similar take is presented in Animal Dreams, a book by Barbara Kingsolver. The dog is sleeping and making sudden movements while apparently dreaming. Curiosity leads to infer in what is the dog dreaming about. According to the characters in the book, the dog dreams about the things he did that day. If we as humans dream about only the things we did that day we are no different. We would only have animal dreams.

Erwin Raphael McManus brings the other side of the coin to exploration in the book Wide Awake. McManus described the potential we all have to turn our lives in an adventure in which we live our dreams and see them as goals and motivators to thrive. We can dream with our eyes open. We can use our God-given talents and imagination to create a future in which we can give purpose to our existence.

Maybe our dreams are also given by God. The story of Joseph shows that no matter how bad things look now, those dreams we had are yet to pass. We are not only dreaming about the past but also about the future. He went to a lot of difficult situations but was faithful and his dreams came alive. There is a plan in a future we are yet to discover in which we fit and participate actively turning our lives in an adventure.

Never stop dreaming. Living in a dream state is not a bad thing. Certainly, we all need to sleep and it is possible that we dream in our sleep. However, dreaming wide awake create life, beauty, and change. Art, music, architecture, technology innovations, inventions that facilitate our daily endeavors, all of it is a product of the imagination of some who refused to stop dreaming.