Love Mentalism: Be Love, Love Light (No pun intended!) by Ananda LeekeAcrylic painting - 2005The painting reflects what happens in Ananda's body when she surrendersto the divine flow of creative energy and allows it to move freely throughher seven chakras (energy centers) to create love as a way of beingin the universe. "Love Mentalism" is a phrase American entertainerStevie Wonder coined in the liner notes of his 1976classic album, Songs in the Key of Life.Happy New Year All!This afternoon I thought I would share some wisdom thoughts I've been marinating on as I move forward with my 2009 creative process. See below. This holiday season I learned how to surrender even more of my ego when I received comments about That Which Awakens Me, my poetic memoir manuscript, from my amazing team of editors. Based on their comments, I realized that I would have to take at least 60 more days to reorganize and prepare my manuscript for publication. This realization was a little challenging to accept because it meant that I would not meet my self-imposed December 31st deadline. When I finally let go and surrendered my need to control the deadline, I started to see that I am blessed to have an "elastic" publishing contract with iUniverse, Inc. that allows for deadline extensions.As I move forward in my editing process, I ask that you continue to surround me with your love and light as I prepare That Which Awakens Me for publication in Spring 2009. Thank you in advance! As always, thank you for stopping by to read my words. Be love, love light, and live as the spirit of life in 2009!Peace and Creativity,AnandaPS: Drop me a line and let me know how you spent New Year's Eve. I had planned to go to my yoga teacher Faith's Shakti Mind Body Studio for a celebration, but I was knocked out by my bronchitis. Thai food, movies, cough syrup, and ginger tea kept me company. Staying in last night really helped. I feel a lot better. So now I am headed out for New Year's Day lunch with my cousin/stylist Butterfly LP at the health bar in Results Gym. After lunch, I'm gonna spend some time in the gym doing some yoga, meditation, weights, and treadmill walking (got a brand new spanking pedometer to track my steps - yippee) while I read Shayne Lee's book, T.D. Jakes: America's New Preacher. What a juicy read! I am almost done with it! I'll probably need a long nap after my workout. A girl needs her sleep. That should recharge my battery and get me ready to complete my household chores and online updating work this evening. What a way to rock in the new year!Ananda's Favorite Wisdom Thoughts for Her 2009 Creative ProcessNote: Many of these wisdom thoughts will be included in That Which Awakens Me.1) Buddhist Wisdom:"Everything, including ourselves, depends on everything else." -Majjhima Nikaya2) Christian Wisdom from 1.1.09 Daily Word:"A new me is emerging this year, and today is the beginning of a journey of discovery. Along the way, I am discovering skills and strengths, pursuing dreams and desires, completing projects and goals. Everything old is in the past. No limiting conditions are left over. All has become new. Previously untried experiences stimulate my mind and creativity. This is a year of renewal of mind and body, of healing--physically and emotionally.I joyfully reunite with people and places that have held meaning in my life. New acquaintances enrich my everyday experiences and inspire my progress forward. I am not the same person I was last year or even yesterday. Through the renewing spirit of Christ within, I am a new creation.So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!--2 Corinthians 5:17"3) Ancestor Wisdom:"No matter who you are , the spirits are around us all the time. Especially the old ones that know us and have gone on before --the ancestors." -Bessie Jones, American author"Our ancestors are an ever-widening circle of hope." -Toni Morrison, American author and Noble laureate4) Art Wisdom:"The true work of art is a creation not of the hands, but of the mind and soul of the artist." -Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, American sculptor"Art is not simply works of art; it is the spirit that knows beauty, that has music in its soul and the color of sunsets in its handkerchief, that can dance on a flaming world and make the world dance, too." -W.E.B. Du Bois, American author, educator, and activist"Art is insperable from life." -Paule Marshall, American author"All art is a kind of confession." -James Baldwin, American author and activist"The Lord puts pictures in my head and he means for me to paint them." -Clementine Hunter, American artist"Art is the soul of a people." -Romare Bearden, American artist"The ultimate in art is self-expression." -Duke Ellington, American composer and musician'The artist is the voice of the people." -Alice Walker, American author"All art is a communication of the artist's ideas, sounds, thoughts." -Lionel Hampton, American musician5) Creativity Wisdom:"This is one of the glories of man, the inventiveness of the human mind and the human spirit: whenever life doesn't seem to give an answer,we create one." -Lorraine Hansberry, American playwright"Often, what we write, the music we write, and the pictures we paint are dialogues with our deepest consciousness." -Marita Golden, American writer and educator"We can only reflect our own experience , but we would hope that we would be understood by others, universally beyond the source." -Jacob Lawrence, American painter"And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see." -Alice Walker, American author6) Soul Wisdom:"My soul has grown deep like the rivers." -Langston Hughes, American poet"The most sacred place isn't the church, the mosque, or the temple, it's the temple of the body. That's where the spirit lives." -Susan Taylor, American author"If you want to accomplish the the goals of your life, you have to begin with the spirit." -Oprah Winfrey, American entrepreneur and television personality"Take a day to heal from the lies you've told yourself and the ones that have been told to you." -Maya Angelou, American author and poet"If you don't live the only life you have, you won't live some other life, you won't live any life at all." -James Baldwin, American author and actvitst"Never be afraid to sit awhile and think." -Lorraine Hansberry, American playwright"Your world is as a big you make it." -Georgia Doulglas Johnson, American author"Find the good. It's all around you. Find it, showcase it, and you'll start believing in it." -Jesse Owens, American Olympic track star"Never give up and sit and grieve. Find another way." -Satchel Paige, American baseball star
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