Grateful

My "Fanciful" Lizards                                                                                                                                          B Upton

I have always loved Thanksgiving- one of the more laid back Holidays where we get to enjoy good company, good food and the pleasure of thinking about all that is right in our lives.

When I count my blessings, people come first- my beloved family, all my loved ones and good friends and the friends I have yet to meet! I am thankful for.the gift of life itself and for our beautiful and sacred earth. I am thankful for the time we are living in, which although challenging, is also full of  promise. I am grateful that a new world is possible that works for everyone and that humanity is awakening and will not stop until they create it! I am thankful for open hearts, for the eternal possibility of forgiveness and for the unconditional love that permeates our universe and is the ground of our being.

To bring it all down to earth, I am grateful for the conversation I just had with my 8 year old grandson, the oldest of my three little darlings. We talked for well over an hour on subjects ranging from caught critters (he estimates he has caught over 100 geckos- which he eventually frees)  pets like Honey Bear (a little dog who has the face of a bear and who is fun to cuddle with) to the stop motion animation he has posted on YouTube and to to art in general. That's when it got very interesting. I asked if he ever considered drawing a picture of one of the geckos.

"Oh, yes, I have" was his reply.

I told him I'd send him a colored pencil drawing I had done of lizards years ago. Then I remembered how "psychedelic" they were and thought it necessary to add,

"They are rather fanciful and don't look like "real" lizards."

He paused and then sagely said, "There is no right or wrong in art- that's what makes it art."

How wonderful and liberating and a long way from the way I was "taught" art. When I was in the first grade, my teacher slapped me across the face because I was not keeping up with the other students in drawing a tree. She told us to draw a line and put a circle on top. I thought to myself, a tree does not look like a lollipop! So I drew 2 lines for the trunk and was filling them in when...

My grandson informed me that he drew all the time and we decided to make a pact- I'd send him my drawing of lizards and he would send me his "as soon as possible". We also discovered that we both love sea horses.

"Do you know it is not the female that carries their young?" he asked.

When I suggested we might both try our artistic hand with them as well, he said, "You just read my mind!"

He mentioned that my artwork is hanging in his great-grandparents house. When I told him I painted them nearly 40 years ago, he exclaimed, "Your art has been hanging for two generations!"

He also told me of a car he painstakingly made for his dad who "loves cars" for Father's Day and that he had written DAD on the sides of it.

"My dad said it was the best present he ever got," he told me proudly.

Here is to innocence, creativity, passion and hope. Here is to future generations! May we redouble our efforts to create a better world for all the precious children everywhere.

The Gecko Catcher Himself

And with his dad, my son

Here is my post from last Thanksgiving- Our Universe, Ourselves, which is my most popular one. It is quite different from this year, but the wish remains the same-

May you have a delightful day filled with goodness, warmth and love. May the blessings of connectedness, plenty and love reach more and more people around the world.