Piece #1 finished ya! So this is a systems based project where I come up with a system that will determine the result of the piece of art and takes basically the majority of the control out of my hands. So this system is based on data. I've plotted out the ocean tides from April-present day from the North Shore in Oahu. Each dot represents the time of high or low tide and how many feet out the tide was listed as. Kinda cool that is forms a spiral huh? My next piece for this project will be based on a similar system. Instead of using the ebb and flow of the ocean tides though I've gone through my journal, blogposts, etc to record my level of happiness/contentment with life . This won't be as accurate because my personal recordings aren't as frequent or detailed as I would like them but, essentially I'll map out my emotional "tides" and see if it forms a pattern or even parallels in anyway to this first piece.
So I finished this, gessoed a canvas for my figure painting and decided to go on a run while it dried. My Ipod hasn't worked since King's Peak...well it does but, never when I think I need it. So I went on a run just thinking about a lot of things. By the way. Yesterday was my first time running in over a month. I'm so used to either rock climbing or biking around that I felt so weird because it was just me, running, with shoes, and that was it.
I decided I'd use this time to think and do some problem solving. So I ran, just a short 15 minutes out and then turn around and come back but, I was surprised at how helpful that was.
I thought about the counsel that God gave to Adam and Eve in the Garden before they were cast out..."by the sweat of your brow". God's purpose is to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses) and that counsel of laboring is definitely something that will help us reach that. When we exercise we sweat. As we continue to exercise and work hard we become stronger and we become physically able to do more and more things that we were not able to do before. But we can't do it by reading about ways to become more fit or watching shows on it or whatever. We actually have to get out there and do it and make the time to do it. I thought about trials that come into our lives whether from a result of our agency or others choices...the fact that we live on an imperfect planet with imperfect people who are all trying to learn. They're hard. They're emotionally, sometimes even physically, hard. We spend hours, days, sometimes years crying, pleading, searching, and working to overcome them but, once passed we can see that we became better in spite of the trial and that we are stronger and we are now able to do more than we were able to do before. But once again. It takes work. It takes us actually DOING something about it. Sometimes you can't change it but, you can still decide what you're going to DO about it, or how you will LIVE with it, or react to it.
"...by the sweat of your brow..."
So as I ran, I continued to think about these different things. And I thought about our purpose here on Earth. And even my own purpose. I'm here to feel the measure of my creation. I'm here to feel why I was created. I'm here to FEEL. That includes pain. That includes heartache. That includes joy. That includes love. The Lord's purpose is to help us achieve eternal life and immortality. It was a blessing that Eve partook of the fruit and that Adam chose to join her because it allowed us to become mortal and allowed us to have to learn and grow by working, by experience, by the sweat of our brow: hard work, even trial. Experience tends to stick with us longer than something we just learn from a book it seems. Eve wouldn't have learned as much if Adam had not chosen to continue with her in becoming mortal. She would have been alone had he not. The Earth would have never been populated and none of us would be here if they hadn't stuck together. So one is not without the other. Family helps us grow and learn more than if we were trying to do it by ourselves. So family is instituted by God to help us learn and grow.
Another thought, to be "spiritually minded is life eternal...". So being spiritually minded can even be taken to the level of permeating all parts of my life. Including running. To feel the measure of my creation. I can feel the measure of my creation by running. I'm using my body to propel me forward. I feel pain. I feel the sun on my face. I can hear my feet moving and my breath. And breathing reminds me how to live. Take it all in. Give it all back. I can feel myself becoming stronger as I continue to run consistently. But for now I can feel my body. I can feel what's off, things that need to be fixed...like the fact my back is completely out of alignment right now. Can I say that running never felt so great. I wasn't running because I had to look like that super ripped girl in the magazines. I wasn't running because I have to train for a 1/2 marathon. I wasn't running because someone was forcing me to. I was running to feel a part of why I was created and it helped me appreciate the pain, the sweat of my brow, and the fact that I have a working body that allows me to just run. So I am fulfilling my purpose by feeling. Physically, emotionally. I just thought it was kinda cool.
I've been praying to be redirected. I want you to know that prayers are answered. God is there He listens. He wants us to be happy. So if we think that we'll be happier doing something else...if it's not going to be completely detrimental to us, he'll usually let us do it. Prayer works I have a testimony of prayer. So I realized as I got off my run that I was being redirected in a certain thought having nothing directly to do with what I just wrote about but, I was redirected from something I used to want and I panicked because I realized that the Lord heard my prayer. I know that sounds so weird. But I realized that I needed to really find within myself if I wanted to be redirected from that thing like I thought I wanted to be. So what do I desire most? And is it to be redirected right now? Either way. I have some more to think about but, now I have the blessing of knowing that God answers my prayers and that having the ability to feel is helping me learn and grow so I can work towards eternal life and immortality.
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