My Christmas Landscape

Yes, I did it. I went shopping with my wife on... "da da da daaaaa...Black Friday." Did you like the dramatic intro?

I have done it for years. I don't normally shop, I just escort and I love it! I get to watch people. On this day I see them at their best, buying for others and at their worst, fighting with others.

Still it is part of what I call the landscape of Christmas.

There really is more good than bad to be found if one chooses to see it. That's like life itself.

I recently started exploring the gift of painting. Although I haven't done much of it, I have been reading about it. In the latest copy of "The Artist's Magazine," I happen to come across a quote that I fell in love with. It explains more about how I see life in general than it does in how to see a landscape I want to paint.

John F. Carlson said, "The sketch is a true statement of things as you found them; the picture is an arrangement of these things as you wish them to be."

God places the world before us. Each of us sees it differently even if we were standing in the exact same spot. Why? We are a total summation of all the choices we have made in life, our education, our family genetics, our experiences and even our gender, all influence how we choose to see life.

That's the "sketch."

The final "picture," our masterpiece, is the way we want or wish them to be.

When I wake up each day I see my sketch before me. As I go through that day, I begin to paint the landscape of that day. I can change the picture, even if I think I'm seeing the same old scene everyday. How? By choosing to see it differently. By taking small elements and focusing on changing them.

I am trying desperately to change the landscape of this Christmas, my Christmas. So far, it hasn't been easy. I need to keep reminding myself, not everyone has the same vision as I. Not everyone appreciates my pictures. No one understands.

Still, these are my Christmas landscapes "as I wish them to be."

"I wish you enough!"
J
~ Bob Perks ~

Good news - Bob Perks' first book, "I Wish You Enough," Embracing Life's Most Valuable Moments... is now available for ordering. Here's the "Link" to get your copy of Bob's book: I Wish You Enough from Amazon.com.

[ by: Bob Perks Copyright © 2009 (2believe@comcast.net) -- {used with permission} ]