"Petals Down"

As some of you know, one of my present joys is my Japanese brush painting class. It is called Sumi-E. I am terrible at it, but I am still getting in touch with my artistic side so I don't mind. Many of the people in the class have been there for years. Our teacher told us that you can't even consider yourself advanced until you've been doing it for at least ten years. That gives me great hope.

The teacher beings the class by having us read orally one of the zen principles or something nature related. It is very quieting and "zen-like." It's almost yoga-like. Then the teacher demonstrates what we will paint. We all gather around him and watch his magnificent brush strokes. We then go to our desks and begin our painting.

As we are working, he calls up each student and paints what we are working on. He said it's his gift to us for taking the class. It's my favorite part of the class because I feel like I'm watching a master. He makes it seem so easy.

Each of us has a book with rice paper and that is what he uses. I am so happy that I can use the name block I bought in Hong Kong. It is my name in Chinese characters and I use it to stamp my book.

Today we painted a landscape and next week we will paint cherry blossoms. He demonstrated cherry blossoms because he said the landscape is easy (ha). One of the paintings he showed us had petals falling . When they fell into water (or snow, as my friend pointed out), they can change the color of the element. If a lot of petals fall down, then the color change is more pronounced.

It made me think of the petals that fall down from our lives. These petals can intensely affect the things around us! Be aware of your "falling petals." Make sure that the colors your petals leave are vibrant and positive!