"We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better."  J.K. Rowling

I reread J.K. Rowling's commencement address to Harvard graduates this morning.  (The above quote is from that address.)  Here is the link to the address in case you'd like to read it for yourself:

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/06/text-of-j-k-rowling-speech/.

In this address, Ms. Rowling extols the benefits of failure.  She does not sugar coat or ignore the difficulties inherent in failure, neither the fears nor the desperation that failure can engender.  But she does focus on the one and only thing that makes failure bearable; the stripping away of all but the essence of who you are and why you exist on earth.  We used to call this getting down to brass tacks.  What I think she means is creating; creating those things that you were brought here to create.

Clearly, failure was quite a motivator for Ms. Rowling for the result of her failures was Harry Potter.

The other aspect addressed by Ms. Rowling is imagination, which includes empathy, the ability to imagine the situation of others.  Remember, she was speaking to Harvard's graduates, perhaps the most privileged group of all of us very privileged Americans.  At a time in our national politics when empathy for others seems to be in short supply,  her comments were particularly resonant.

"What is more, those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy."  

Or as Dr. King said, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends."

Ms. Rowling, like Dr. King, advocates action.

"If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better."

In view of J.K. Rowling's sterling words and ringing voice, the questions for me today are:

What am I doing today irrespective of the risk of failure?  

Am I raising my voice on behalf of those who have no voice?

What about you?  Are you choosing safety and silence or are you risking failure and helping others?  The choice is yours.

My name is Pat Finley and I'm a sporadic meditator.  I've meditated two days in a row.

What sporadic meditator means is that my meditation practice has been mostly aspirational; that is, I aspire to meditate.  I don't actually do it.  Often.  Usually.

I am in the process of changing aspiration into reality.  So far (yes, it is early yet) I've got two days under my belt.  It's not much but hey everybody had a first day.

I currently am using the New York Times meditation guides in the following article: https://www.nytimes.com/guides/well/how-to-meditate.  Led by Tara Brach, the 10 minute meditation is just about right for me.  I've got 10 minutes, right?  Heck, I waste more time than that scrolling through Facebook!

Meditation helps with lots of stuff, as we know through neuroscience, but for me it is especially helpful for art solutions.  What can I do to a piece of art to make it beautiful?  Often the solution comes through meditation, which is why I strive to meditate regularly.  

For example, I've got a 40x60" panel that I created in teal resin with white and silver mountains outlined for a commission.  The client didn't like the pointedness of the mountains.  She was right; instead of rolling hills, as I originally suggested, I did pointy mountains.  (Don't ask what I was thinking; I have no idea.)  She was right to reject it.  So, what to do with this big (read: expensive) panel?  Can I rescue it?  What can I put on top of the pointy mountains to disguise them and create something entirely different?  

I've meditated on it and I think that through meditation I've come up with a solution.  I'm gonna give it a shot this week and see what happens.  I'll let ya know.  

The picture is of the panel with the mountains painted over with teal.

Where did letter writing go?  Did it go the way of the dodo?  Can you even remember the last time you received a hand written letter from someone?

I can. My daughter always writes hand written thank you notes.  Quaint, right?  But I've kept all of my daughter's thank you notes to me for they always express her love for me.  Often they bring me to tears.

I used to have a wonderful letter writing exchange going on with my Uncle Kenny.  Uncle Kenny's hearing was damaged in the South Pacific during WWII.  Talking on the phone was tough for him.  So we got in the habit of writing letters.  He was, at age 95, a bit baffled and overwhelmed by the computer so most of his letters were hand written.  It was a bit of a challenge for me to translate them at times.  But I loved getting them.  Uncle Kenny's letters were a visible expression of his love.  As mine were to him.  His letters were an intriguing look at this rather brilliant man's mind, interests and heart.  Until he died at age 95, he was still going strong, reading and thinking and learning.

Recently, my Dad died at age 92.  My Mom, also 92, is physically in pretty good shape but she doesn't hear well. She and I both used to rely on the conversations that my Dad and I had for the family news.  Now that he's gone, we talk a bit, more than we did before, but still only a bit and in short spurts because of her hearing issues.  

So recently I decided to write her letters.  

There is something about letter writing that is wonderful, that allows me to express how I really feel about the events of my life.  I told my momma what was going on with our lives here in Denver, several states away from her.  I told her what our plans were for Christmas and how her great-granddaughter was learning and growing by leaps and bounds.   I told her how my art business was doing and I enclosed a picture of her great-granddaughter and a couple of pictures of my art.

For the first time in a long time, I feel like I really communicated with her.   

I hope she writes back.  

But even if she doesn't write me back, I will continue to write to her an expression of my love.  That's what letters do in a very different way from the telephone or email.  Letters to my Momma express love.