PENTIMENTO

Pentimento – the Italian word meaning “repeat or change your mind.”  It’s appropriate for this time of year.  This idea suggests that you leave your stumbles for other to see – not for the achievement of perfection but for the creation of something better.

The artist Anwar Matisse used this idea in his drawings until a satisfactory design developed.  By practicing re-solution (to resolve yourself), drawing over or retracing our past lives as Matisse did with his art, we begin to see a pattern.  Whether we like or dislike the pattern depends on what we see in the drawing. This time of year is perfect to make resolutions if we don’t like the pattern.   This process is a return to our short comings chronically trying to solve ourselves knowing that we will never be perfect.  We make peace with ourselves, our past and our future.  By holding this thought in this moment we possess re-solution in our hands – it’s ours, it’s fantastic.  It’s a big, bright orb of our possibility.

So, when you view the giant, silver, sparkling ball as it falls in New York Time Square for the countdown into 2018, just imagine that it’s your Pentimento.

Holiday Wishes

The key seems to be finding just the right greeting for just the right person or occasion.  Happiness, friendship, peace, good will, joy, giving, blessings, gifts and tradition are just a few of the more popular words that tend to be associated with well-wishing at this time of year.

Instead of trying to sort through and match up all of these glittery, joyful sentiments, I decided to send all of them out to everyone for my HOLIDAY WISHES!!!

Circadian

circadian rhythm

The cycle flows just like the Colorado.  A google search (12-2017) of the term circadian reveals a definition of: a cycle 24 hours long with fluctuations in biological and psychological processes.  This cycle systematically varies over the course of each day.

Research by Frank A.J.L. Scheer, PhD, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Medical Chronobiology Program at Brigham & Woman’s Hospital in Boston suggests that metabolism is based on this cycle.

The process of revolving “light” and “dark” throughout the day influences rhythms regulating the function of certain organs within the body.  This is obvious during a 20-week study in Spain that examined when people eat their largest meal of the day.  Evidence from this study shows that some people may lose weight easier if they eat a smaller meal at night.  It seems that it’s not only important what we eat but when we eat.

It may be that when we eat a large meal in the morning our metabolism increases.  However, eating more calories in the evening may store the extra calories as fat.  This idea is suggested in an article “Mealtime Matters” – Arthritis Today – February, 2018. p.20.

Listening to your circadian keeps you healthy.  Just like a healthy river nourishes the land.

Gratitude

Tell someone that they are appreciated.

Back Story

Walking through the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas is a wonderland this holiday season.  The botanical garden offers a stunning array of holiday designs to fill both your eyes and heart with imagination.  Playful childhood memories flow easily and swirl around the festive chamber evoking feelings of joy and happiness.

Passing through the garden I fine myself breathing easily and walking slowly – I am relaxed.  The visual scene that awaits me is unexpected.  Ceilings are not something that I normally view when walking into a room.  So, entering the registration lobby of the hotel offers an opportunity for a new visual view point.  Looking up my eyes, first glance at and then, intimately examine an unexpected visual buffet.  Viewing the ornate glass art work covering the ceiling immediately stimulates my brain – flowers and colors everywhere.

The obvious “draw” is the elaborate holiday display in the botanical garden of decorated trees and festive pixies celebrating the season which I have initially enjoyed.  What I didn’t expect is the additional kicker of viewing the invigorating aloft design – it has always been there, I didn’t really see it.  I have previously walked through the hotel lobby and viewed the design but this time I’m engulfed in the artwork.

Obviously, viewing the holiday display put me at ease.  When I’m in a relaxed state I’m open to new possibilities.  Situations that I previously encountered now offer new plausible ideas.  The back story is that I’m more effective when I interact in a flexible state of being.