Love is where it's at

 

Dream Selfie -- Wonder Water Image #7
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 30 inches

Barbara Muir © 2016

 

This post came up in my Facebook memories today and it seemed perfect
for tonight. I've edited it a bit for the blog.   I'm posting the painting too,
even though you've seen it before. I know it's one of my best.  And if there's
a person who works from the heart in this world -- Regan Daley, the woman
in the painting, is certainly one of the best.

"For me Heart is All.

I remember teaching positive psychology for my boss

Frank Daley

, (who I deeply admire, and loved working with) and talking about love. (This portrait is of his beautiful daughter,

Regan Daley

), and showed in the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, France in October (2016). One point of the positive psych course (and the textbook) was that loving a person is not the same as loving chocolate. Of course we were trying to help young people understand what true, grown up love with a partner was like. But I always fidgeted with that concept -- got uneasy, felt a psychic error there for me. True there are degrees of love. It would be hard to match the love I feel for my family and friends. But it is my experience that people who throw that word around -- who love people, and paintings, music, humour, ice cream, and flowers, coffee, and wine, pretty clothes, and their jobs -- also love each other, the environment, the planet, fairness, and equality. And they will fight, not in a shallow way, to take care of the people, the neighbourhood, the city, the country, and the planet that they love. I am all for spreading the love, for loving as much as possible -- for gushing over a book, a movie, a friend, a lover. We are trained to be reticent, and it isn't getting us anywhere. So guess what? I love that you are reading this. And please compliment your family and friends. Love, love, love.

My mother's death taught me that it is all over in an instant, and you cannot ever love enough in this lifetime. "

When I found this today, I felt proud. I so agreed with the author (me). Yes. Have we

ever needed to make love a priority more than now. Now back to work, and I love the

drawing I'm working on. And I love your work, and your support, and how vital you

make the world for me.