The simple things of life

This will be my last painting of 2012, it has been a busy year, and just like others has flown by in a blur of activity. Finding time to paint has been a challenge, and it looks as if I will continue to find time only in the evenings and on the weekends to paint. Of course there are other important things that I need to put first, and this makes my time to create even more rare, precious, and enjoyable.

After painting this boy I noticed that one can find great pleasure in such a simple activity (Pushing an old tyre around) It made me realise I too can focus on the simple things of life. In fact most of the happiest people whom I have met have been those living a simple and uncluttered life.

Unfortunately many of us have been brought up to believe that our wants, are actually our needs. Advertising bombards us with visual images of the so called good life, and we assume that if we don’t get that item, we will be unhappy. It does not take long to realise that real happiness has never come from the things we own, but rather from enjoying and sharing the simple things of life with those whom we love, and even with those whom we don’t know.

So I will be trying to simplify even more, and to focus on the more important things in life, rather than on the things that are here today, but gone tomorrow.

Our Life is frittered away by detail….simplify, simplify.

Henry David Thoreau