Aerial perspective

October's garden anemones
in a glass vase
acrylic on canvas
8 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 2009

I know that aerial perspective isn't what I really want to talk
about here. I'm thinking of the crow's point of view, as
it flies above my street, my city, the fields and forests,
the mountains and oceans, or the geese, or all the brave
birds who may be making their way from my country
to yours right now. Their view is is the wide view:
they get it.

Sometimes I get so tangled up in the day to day, the "have
to do this", and "have to do that", that I lose sight (ha!) of
the miracle of my life here, and the one I share with you.
So what's the answer? How do we get back to the lofty
point of my favorite bird the crow, or to the geese or the
tiny juncos who now join us from the arctic? The answer
for me seems to be something so simple, and something I'm
not sure migrating birds get much of -- sleep. Eight hours
of sleep is my miracle cure. Just that amazing solid
number of hours of sleep brings my whole vision back,
and I feel delighted with my life.

Today was a good day.

In fact I painted, marked my papers and remembered
that we'd missed the cats' birthday. In fact it was October 5th,
but we were too busy to notice. So we had a small party
for them tonight -- sardines for the birthday cats, and their
invited guest -- Zoey the dog, who sang a nearly perfect
Happy Birthday to them.

Timbah eyes his cake with suspicion
He is much more interested in
the sardines -- a birthday treat



Like most two-year-olds Fiona
is afraid of the cake and
has to be helped to pose for
her birthday picture.

Fiona the cat is two, and Timbah the cat is four, and
both of them give us so much pleasure. Fiona may be
terrible two, because it was difficult getting her to pose with her
cake (which Steven and I kindly ate to avoid feeding the cats
food that was far too sophisticated and rich for people that young.)

Have a getting-enough-sleep-to-be-creative day.