Happiness/Gratitude Check In Week 5

I have used this image many times in my art. Why? It brings back a special fond memory. For a very short time I had 2 cats named Bella. This Bella did not live long enough.

My Bella is always very serious. Here she is depicted that way. It is something about her eyes.

Jazz I got him the month after I moved to Oregon. He was in a cage at the pound and reached out for me. I was not looking for a black and white cat that day, but he did come home with me. Jazz likes "head action" and drinking from a running water faucet.

Bella the Gazebo Cat. She lived next door and started coming to visit me after having a litter of 5 kittens. I don't think there was enough peace, food nor attention at the other house.
She got what she wanted and needed at mine.

Jazz again. This day I found him in an open linen closet.

Bella in her backyard. This is my alpha female patrolling. These days, she guards the cat door most of her time. No raccoon dare come in the house!

This is a piece I did last year in my backyard. I call it Kitty Party. I think it is a fitting piece for this post as my house is a lifetime kitty party.

Minor things can become moments of great revelation when encountered for the first time.

*Margot Fonteyn

We tend to think it is the major events that mark our lives, when really it is the minor moments that resonate in memory. This week I am going to try to think/meditate on this idea and look at how the past has effected the present or maybe,

" Why am I the way I am?" "Why am I who I am?"

Sunday: For as long as I can remember, cats have been a major part of my life. They have been my good friends in good times and in bad. I've received them as gifts from friends and family. I have had kittens born on my pillow as I slept. I have had mother cats come to me for comfort and love. I now live with 3 black and white cats. I call them "the black and whites." They are all very different in personality. Cats have always fulfilled a mothering or nuturing need in me. They make me happy daily.

Monday: My Mother was a very special person. When she passed away from cancer when I was 40, I felt that I had lost that one person who loved me unconditionally. She appreciated the things that made me special and encouraged me in them. She instilled in me my high confidence level and that I could do anything I wanted to do. Since her death, I have lived without that one person in my life. I have missed her so much.

Mom encouraged me in needlework and in art. She was a wonderful role model in dealing with people. She did not gossip and was a very private person. She had an elegant style in both her home and in her person. She was a voracious reader and tended to read classic literature. She loved to travel and had a strong curiosity for history and place. I believe I inherited this from her and her zest for life. One of the biggest complements I remember giving her was that I would rather travel with my parents than with anyoner else as I had so much fun with them.

Tuesday: Did I tell you that I love the color red? Red anything. If it's red I'm attacted to it. Isn't that strange? As a department store buyer, I had to be cognizant of this prejudice so as not to buy red everything. My house reflects my taste in color. There is a splash of red in several of the rooms--not just a sprinkling or a focal point of red, but a splash! I did show restraint in painting the outside of the house but I have always been sorry that I didn't paint it red. I don't know when this started really. There were many red memories that I could point out, but it may have come to a head after college when I started working for an Advertising agency who had red cubicles and wooden floors with long Persian runners. It excited me. It still excites me.

Wednesday: I was always an athlete until maybe, 8 years ago. I suppose weight discouraged going forward. When I moved to Portland, I decided to start playing tennis again. I found a drill and play class and during the 2nd class I ruptured my achilles tendon. Shit! Then 2 years later I broke the same ankle--badly. I still have the attitude and walk of an athlete. I'm still energetic. I'm still competitive in my mind just not in my body. Now I attend a water aerobics class for exercise and walk to and from the bus stop and at lunch at work. WOW! Why did I let it go? I think I traded art in for it. It was a good trade.

Thursday: I have always loved lilacs. I always say they make me smile. I even met a boyfriend over them. Unfortunately, I can't smell as well as I used to. Friends have always laughed at my methods of obtaining them. Year around I stake out bushes in places that aren't on someones property. When May comes around, I steal lilacs. One day, about 7 years ago, Krystie and I were on our way to work and I told her to pull over as there was an abandoned house with a couple lilac bushes. It was 7:30 and we stopped and picked. Later that week, I stopped at the same house and picked a huge bunch only to be met by an older man on my way to the car. Needless to say, I was very embarassed and apologetic. I guess it wasn't an abandoned house after all. Now I actually have 3 bushes in my yard. Last year was the first year that I had a bloom. Very soon, I may not have to steel to feed my obsession! 2 more months!

Friday: I have collected rocks since I was in 2nd grade. At that time, we were living in North Dakota and that area was known big time for its' rocks. I remember my dad going hunting and bringing back a lot of big pieces of mica. WOW! were they fantastic. Unfortunately, for some reason, they didn't move with us and I have always lamented that. I remember going to a school where there were little "dinosaur bones" all over the playground. I would spend my time at recess looking for these small fossilized bones. My dad worked with a man who was a professional rockhound. I remember being very interested in him and his stories. We actually went out sapphire hunting with him at one point. My dad built sand sifters which was how you found them. My last early memory of rocks, was going on a trip to Mt. Rushmore and stopping at the souvenir shop and purchasing 3 colored glass rocks. I chose blue, green and red. I don't know what happened to them but they stayed with me for many many years. Through the years, I have continued to collect rocks and they have been getting progressively bigger. I look at them as natural art and feel that all of my rocks are beautiful. They are all over my house and my yard. Many friends and boyfriends have given me gifts of rocks. I never met a rock I didn't like.

Saturday: I have always been a sun person. Summers were spent laying out on the deck reading. A tan was a given. Since 5th grade, my family always had boats. At different times. we had a couple waterskiing boats and some cabin cruisers. I had friends in college who raced sailboats. For me, boating and sun go hand in hand. Later when I moved to Hawaii it was very easy to ease into Sun, Sand, Sea, not to mention Sensuous Tradewinds. Weekends found us at the beach and out in the convertible. I am still this girl.

So ends another week. It has been interesting looking at some of the things that have been important in my life. Granted I have only touched the surface and have decided to continue on this next week. Stay tuned.