Hey artist friends --- Try meditating! And Happy National Puppy Day!

Sally the dog

Acrylic on canvas

5 x 7 inches 

Barbara Muir © 2014

(I'm posting this for National or

International Puppy Day.  Sally was

a puppy in this photo, and horribly thin 

when we adopted her from the 

Humane Society.  She's not

fun around other dogs, but a 

wonderful house dog, and we love

her so much!  Happy Puppy

Day to all the puppies out there.)

It seems to me that animals - my dog and my cats are
really good at sitting still and breathing. I am trying to
make small changes as I move through the Month of Change.
 What are they?  Funny you asked. Well. I have started
meditating again.  I realized that I am subconsciously nervous,
which comes out in my dreams sometimes, so I decided to fix that.
Meditation really works, and it doesn't have to be for long.  Even
a five minute guided meditation from a video on the Internet, if you
don't have more time, can tip your day into happy.  And moving
towards a more positive viewpoint helps us be more creative.

Plus I've been trying to walk for an hour every day.  For the
whole month of January I was sick with pleurisy.  I
still worked on both art and teaching, but for much
of the month I was in bed.  Walking is my exercise
and the sidewalks are dry in Toronto now, the snow is
disappearing. Today we walked in the streets down around
the St. Lawrence Market.  I teach down there
one night a week at the moment, but hardly ever go there in
the daytime, it was cool to see it differently. A beautiful area.

Another change I've made as you might have noticed is that
I've been blogging every day.  This may end soon because in
addition to the art I'm trying to finish, I am taking on a heavier
teaching load in May for a few months.  Balancing everything
out may mean no blogging for awhile. We'll see.

Hope you had a fabulous Saturday.  Yes I did.