We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For.
Every moment offers choices. As this year progresses, decisions about how we live have larger effects with multi-generational influences. Although my posts were going to pause, I had to share … Hopi Elders Prophecy June 8, 2000 You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered… Where are you living? What are you doing? What are your relationships? Are you in right relation? Where is your water? Know your garden. It is time to speak your truth. Create your community. Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for your leader. Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, “This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt. The time of the one wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word ’struggle’ from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. See Hopi Elder Thomas Banyacy presentations here. Click here to view. SkyScapes Collection The inspiring and beautiful work in my Fine Art America collections is available as prints, framed and on canvas as well as on journals, greeting cards, weekender bags, shower curtains, puzzles and much more. Shop Here Thanks for your support! Sandra Gould Ford NOTE: size and placement of the art and words]can be changed as well as background colors.
New Schedule
One year ago, Succeed and Soar launched. Since then, illustrated inspirations have posted each week. Thank you for reading. For the next year, I’ll post eight times, at the equinoxes, solstices and their mid points. The next ELetter-blog will be in four weeks, at Samhain [pronounced sow-wain], an important point in the cycle of seasons, which can start a more contemplative-reflective period as nights lengthen. NOTE When this message was first presented, I planned to slow then end the posts. Three years later, As of January, 2024 Three years later, seems topics that align with Succeed and Soar‘s mission have kept me posting once a week. New themes have arisen like “Thrive! Nourishing News” a year ago. Seeking and sharing “Select Short Videos” has been a great adventure. The twelve “Paths to Joy” series has been so enriching, it’s been updated and presented twice. This year, two new themes debut: “Authors Speak” where writers share what inspires them and “Your Heroic Heart,” to encourage our best. Even the tags for the original post have changed! Here are wisdoms that kept me going, When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps. — Confucius The question should be, is it worth trying to do; not can it be done? –Allard Lowenstein Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try. — Source Unknown Expect problems and eat them for breakfast. –Alfred A. Montapert If at first you don’t succeed, get a bigger hammer. — Alan Lewis Please enjoy. Paths to Joy Collection The inspiring and beautiful work in my Fine Art America collections is available as prints, framed and on canvas as well as on journals, greeting cards, weekender bags, shower curtains, puzzles and much more. Shop Here Thanks for your support! Sandra Gould Ford NOTE: size and placement of the art and words]can be changed as well as background colors.
Life Well Lived 15th of 15: Worth The Ride
Love doesn’t make the world go ‘round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile. – Franklin P. Jones Succeed and Soar’s “Life Well Lived” series started four months ago with a photograph of baby grapes. Three promises were made. To share: Inspiring quotes Photographs of nature and The baby grapes at harvest time. While countless infant grape clusters crammed my back porch arbor last spring, none remained two months later. By mid-summer, all I found were the last grapes pictured atop this post. They disappeared a day later. What happened? Three years ago, the first time my bounty vanished overnight, I was told birds love that fruit. Each year, I plan to enjoy some grapes before the phantom birds [I’ve never seen them]. Each August, I say: Maybe next year. And, maybe I’ll see the birds that love my grapes. Love. BTW, check out the comments on last week’s post. They’re heart warmers. Reply. Comment below on this week’s topic. Do you have: Cures for pesty birds? Sweet memories of grapes? A love that makes life worthwhile? Check out 30 lovely, inspiring seconds. Video Link Tools and Resources Cookies When traveling the internet, ‘cookies’ appear more often these days. What are they? A: Cookies record our browsing activities. They can also remember information we enter into forms, such as names, addresses, passwords, and payment card numbers. Read more. More and more web sites now insist we allow cookies. For those who’d rather not be cookie’d, here’s how to Opt Out. This Week’s Special Offer Each week, my Featured Art is offered at 25% off [plus any discounts offered by my Galleries]. Shop here. Thank you for visiting my galleries and for your purchases. They support Succeed and Soar. NOTE “Last Grapes” was photographed with a Nikon CoolPix camera and ‘developed’ with Adobe Photoshop Elements 14. In addition to enriching the colors, hue and vibrance, the image was processed through Glowing Edges and Fresco filters.
Life Well Lived 14: I’m Possible
Nothing is impossible. The word itself says: I’m possible! – Audrey Hepburn When my sister and I were young, we cleaned our rooms, changed our bed sheets and dusted the house on Saturday mornings. Then we walked to the Roland. There, in a theater full of kids, we watched an hour of cartoons then two movies. One I remember best was Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Recently, I learned the shy actress Audrey Hepburn didn’t think she could become an outgoing character. Fortunately for film lovers, somewhere along the line, the character Holly Golightly went from impossible for Hepburn to an Academy Awards nomination and an unforgettable icon. BTW, I just read Breakfast at Tiffany’s and am amazed by the differences between the movie and novella [a quick, excellent read]. When you were a kid, what did you do on Saturdays? What was a favorite movie? How have you taken an impossible opportunity to: I’m possible? Replies invited. Comment below. * National Book Festival This Saturday and Sunday [September 26 and 27], join live, interactive question and answer sessions online with best-selling authors. Ask Library of Congress pros about copyright and preserving photographs. Free. Here’s the schedule. Cultivating Change A transformational journey and deep dive into historic, social and personal racism. The four-part program is for those who desire a deeper understanding of themselves and their connection to others in a society of systemic racism. OMA Center for Mind, Body, Spirit Pittsburgh hosts this online program led by best-selling author Anita D. Russell, MED, CPLC. Starts October 8. Cost $80. Limited to 25. Information. * This Week’s Special Offer Each week, my Featured Art is offered at 25% off [plus any discounts offered by my Galleries]. Shop here. Thank you for visiting my galleries and for your purchases. They support Succeed and Soar. NOTE This image was photographed with a Nikon Coolpix camera. The JPEG file was ‘developed’ in Adobe Photoshop Elements 14, first via the Dry Brush filter. Then the colors were enriched and lighting enhanced.
Life Well Lived #13: Sunshine
Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. Maori Proverb They’re blooming! These Jerusalem Artichokes [also called Sun Chokes] began in my neighbor’s yard. Year-by-year, bit-by-bit, they migrated to mine. By the time the house was torn down, none grew next door … until I tossed a few flowers into the vacant lot. Four years later, a little grove is growing with flowers steadfastly, insistently facing toward warmth and sun. What lovely inspirations as autumn nears and winter follows. BTW, the flowers’ roots are tubers, a vegetable that tastes like a blend of potato and artichoke heart. They improve digestive health, keep bones strong, have lots of vitamins C, A and E, antioxidants that fight disease. They go great in salads, can be added to soups and ground into flour. Read more. Also, check out Rihanna’s video, “Towards The Sun.” * Archive.Org Imagine accessing billions of books, videos, audio materials [including live concerts] and more for free. The Internet Archive’s goal is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge. They began in 1996 by archiving the Internet itself and now have: 200,000 software programs 330 billion web pages 20 million books and texts 4.5 million audio recordings (including live concerts) Millions of videos (including Television News shows) 3 million images They even have out-of-print books published before 1923, which was how I found this great resource. * This Week’s Special Offer Each week, my Featured Art is offered at 25% off [plus any discounts offered by my Galleries]. Shop here. Thank you for visiting my galleries and for your purchases. They support Succeed and Soar. NOTE “Jerusalem Artichokes” was photographed with a Nikon CoolPix camera on an overcast day and ‘developed’ with Adobe Photoshop Elements 14. The image was processed through both the Watercolor and Accented Edges Filters along with enrichment of the color saturation and vibrance as well as lighting.
Life Well Lived #12: What If You Could Not Fail?
Dwell in possibility. – Emily Dickinson Make a list. In his book Move Ahead with Possibility Thinking, Rev. Robert Schuller asked, “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?” What a question! What is Possibility Thinking? Business leader, success coach and author John Maxwell answers, “Possibility thinking is the willingness to see possibilities everywhere, instead of limitations.” What happens when a marvelous possibility is identified? Dr. Phil has ten strategies for success. They start with: Vision: Clearly see the goal. Strategy: Write plans. [Go beyond thinking to inking a timeline.] Flex: Allow adjustments and insights that could improve results. Read more. In this week’s special video [below], actor Denzel Washington suggests preparing to fall forward instead of making back-up plans. Join over 26,000,000 who learned why. Here’s the transcript. * BookTube BookTube is a YouTube world where everything from book hauls [announcements of book purchases] to books reviews are broadcast.Styles range from Wisecrack’s Thug Notes [summaries and analyses of classics in gangster speak] to Snazzy Reads [recommendations from a ten-year-old ‘dapper dude’]. Some BookTube channels have hundreds of thousands, even millions of subscribers, like Comicstorian, who dramatically reads all kinds of comic books. Here’s Reedsy’s list of BookTube channels [171 and growing]. And here are five tips for starting your own. Keep reading!! * This Week’s Special Offer Each week, my Featured Art is offered at 25% off [plus any discounts offered by my Galleries]. Shop here. Thank you for visiting my galleries and for your purchases. They support Succeed and Soar. NOTE “Bright Red” was photographed with a Nikon CoolPix camera and ‘developed’ with Adobe Photoshop Elements 14. In addition to enrhancing the color saturation, hue and vibrance, the image was enriched through the Watercolor filter.
Life Well Lived #11: You Are Vital
We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained. – Marie Curie From time to time, I’ve heard wise people say that each of us arrives with one-of-a-kind gifts, a combination of qualities that no one who ever lived or who will ever be born can offer. What might that special ‘something’ be? Here are clues, a list of ten qualities that make everyone unique. What do you discover? Share what you learn. Reply. Comment below. Definitely view this week’s video.The 3-minute Story of Your Life presents a precious insight into why where we place ourselves is important. Petition to Build Statue in Chadwick Boseman’s Hometown During Black Panther‘s opening weekend, a friend who dined with me after the movie had to tell me about Chadwick Boseman and his film career. In the week following his death, the world has come to know him as more than a gifted actor but a caring, compassionate human being … a great role model. When I signed the petition to move a Confederate monument to a museum and replace it with one honoring Boseman, my number was 44,485. Then, the goal was 50,000 signatures. Now, they’re close to 75,000. For more information and to sign the petition, click here. * Tales from The Dream Zone & “Wishes”Tales from The Dream Zone is Flying Ketchup Press’ second anthology. This collection of weird and wonderful stories is inspired by remembered or imagined dreams. “Wishes,” my short story about a magic coin debuts in this collection. Copies of this beautifully illustrated book are $12.99. Sandra’s Special, Limited-Time Offer Receive unlimited, personally-autographed copies on single orders, to one US address for $5 shipping & handling. Request here. * Win National Novel Writing Month In 2019, nearly a half million people started National Novel Writing Month, determined to build at least 50,000 words into the start of a book-length story. A few succeeded. Far more important than piling up words is producing useful material. This Pennwriters workshop will use October to launch a fabulous writing adventure at midnight, Halloween night while winning the word-count challenge.Join me. I’m a NaNoWriMo winner and learned a lot along the way. Course Info * OMAZE Would you like to win a Mercedes Benz camper with an added $60,000 in customizations? How about watching the Monaco Grand Prix with Danica Patrick or cooking with chefs Emeril Lagasse and Aaron Sanchez [a Chopped judge] in New Orleans? These fabulous opportunities and more can be yours for as little as $10. Omaze raises money for great causes by offering fabulous opportunities. Their motto: Good things come to those who give. Visit OMAZE. Labor Day Weekend Deliciousness Interested in some cocktails and mocktails to toast the end of summer? How about a juicy peach crisp or some no-bake desserts? Click here for recipes. * This Week’s Special Offer Each week, my Featured Art is offered at 25% off [plus any discounts offered by my Galleries]. Shop here. Thank you for visiting my galleries and for your purchases. They support Succeed and Soar. NOTE The original was shot with a Nikon Coolpix camera. The jpg was “developed” in Adobe Photoshop Elements 14.
Life Well Lived #10: Stumbles & Stepping High
When life offers lemons, make lemonade. The lemon life delivered this week was my experiment with sweetening the Artisan Bread mentioned in my last post. When a reader wrote that he was going to try the recipe, I advised: Adding sugar and dried fruits didn’t go well. Must run an advisory in next week’s post. Turned out a bit tangy. [Will stick with muffin recipes for that kind of thing.] Perhaps I used too much yeast for the heavier, non-wheat flours. Here’s how I made ‘lemonade’ from that bitter bread: Crumbled everything while watching Chopped-Beat Bobby Flay. Put all those crumbles on cookie sheets, baked them for four hours at 200 degrees. [They got really crunchy.] Made granola with this recipe Decided that was a way lot of maple syrup and honey for a couple servings [made with my dehydrated bread, it tasted like peanut brittle candy], so … Pulverized remaining crumbles in my seed-coffee grinder and now have fine-ground bread crumbs. Voila! Stumbles can be stepping stones. As the philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Geothe said, “By seeking and blundering, we learn.” Learn what? Astronomer Carl Sagan suggested “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” Yeah! And, I promise, no more Artisan Bread posts!! * Commencement Speech Transcript * Write for Succeed and Soar Succeed and Soar’s next theme is “Love.” Twenty great quotes have been chosen as prompts. Let me know if you’d like to share your thoughts, meditations, memories, opinions, and the list of quotes and guidelines will be sent asap. I look forward to publishing you in the Succeed and Soar newsletter and on the blog. Click Here to be a Guest, Succeed and Soar Author. Tales from The Dream Zone & “Wishes” Tales from The Dream Zone is Flying Ketchup Press’ second anthology. This collection of weird and wonderful stories is inspired by remembered or imagined dreams. “Wishes,” my short story about a magic coin debuts in this collection. Copies of this beautifully illustrated book are $12.99. Sandra’s Special, Limited-Time Offer Receive unlimited, personally-autographed copies on single orders, to one US address for $5 shipping & handling. Request here. * Preparing to Win National Novel Writing Month In 2019, nearly a half million people started National Novel Writing Month, determined to build at least 50,000 words into the start of a book-length story. A few succeeded. Far more important than piling up words is producing useful material. This Pennwriters workshop will use October to launch a fabulous writing adventure at midnight, Halloween night while winning the word-count challenge.Join me. I’m a NaNoWriMo winner and learned a lot along the way. Course Info When life offers lemons: Stay flexible. Accept that we can’t control everything and life is unpredictable. Maintain good, healthy relationships with family and friends. Learn from situations so that history doesn’t repeat itself. Stay positive. Here are four more tips. And, here are Five, Powerful Ways to Turn Adversity Into Opportunity. Please share. * This Week’s Special Offer Each week, my Featured Art is offered at 25% off [plus any discounts offered by my Galleries]. Shop here. Thank you for visiting my galleries and for your purchases. They support Succeed and Soar.
Life Well Lived 9: Something That Wasn’t There Before
The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something [delightful] that wasn’t there before. Neil Gaiman As promised last week, here’s my incredibly easy Artisan Bread. Because I avoid wheat, these loaves were made with flours on hand: Cassava, Tapioca, Oat and Garbanzo] Extra yeast and water was added because these flours are heavier. My Artisan Bread has a focaccia-like texture. It’s definitely tasty with butter. Also with mayo and tomatoes. I’m looking forward to trying some vegetable hotdogs [purchased at Ikea, of all places]. . Artisan Bread is a forgiving, flexible bread that invites experimentation. So, have just finished baking mini loaves that have blue-cheese look given the spicy, cooked spinach I stirred in. Loaves that contain dates and dried apricots are about to leave my oven. I look forward to adding chopped nuts and seeds. Here’s the 4-minute PBS for Kids video that inspired this delicious, artistic endeavor. Here’s a printable recipe. Reply! Share your bread making adventure! Comment on this blog post. NOTE: The word delightful was added to Neil Gaiman’s quote because some things this incredibly imaginative author have created that weren’t there before have been pretty monstrous. If you’d like a good scare [friends of mine have been really spooked], listen to this 7-minute read of Gaiman’s short story, “Other People.” * While Social Distancing, Here Are Great Ways to: Stay creative Exercise [includes videos] Feel happier Make your own, natural disinfectants Please share. This Week’s Special Offer Each week, my Featured Art is offered at 25% off [plus any discounts offered by my Galleries]. Shop here. Thank you for visiting my galleries and for your purchases. They support Succeed and Soar. NOTE The original image was shot with a Nikon SLR camera using positive film. The transparency] was later digitalized. That JPEG file ‘was processed’ in Adobe PhotoShop Elements 14, achieving a painted effect via the Fresco filter. The color saturation and vibrance were then enriched.
Life Well Lived #8: Let’s get a little crazy here.
The creative personality seems never to grow old but rather, simply grow. – Alden B. Dow Whether you have or have yet to see Bob Ross create a large, beautiful landscape in 30 minutes, treat yourself. Watch a “Joy of Painting” show. If you’re lucky, you’ll hear him croon about painting “happy little” trees and clouds. These words from a man who reminded us to hold onto a bit of childhood and sometimes get a little crazy. Pablo Picasso, one of the most influential painters of the 20th century said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” The man who helped found the Cubist movement and constructed sculpture also said, “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off of our souls.” This week, and for a bit of every week, why not make some art? How? This post’s “Tools and Resources” offer some great, free, online courses. Or, even better for connecting to the child inside and dusting drudge off the soul, another great Picasso recommendation. “To draw, you must close your eyes and sing.” Share your arts adventures. Reply. Comment below. And, consider making some easy, four-ingredient, Artisan Bread. See video. See my bread results next week. The video is from PBS for Kids, I looked all over the site and couldn’t find the recipe. HERE is a quick, easy one with specific instructions. I combined with video info [like baking in moist oven]. * As Bob Ross would recommend, Let’s get a little crazy. Make some art this week. Here are some, Free Online Art Classes Kline Creative Free Drawing Lessons for beginners ArtyFactory All kinds of free art lessons, from charcoal portraits to aerial perspective, from African masks to pen and ink and more. Toad Hollow Studios A very talented artist shares her drawing techniques, including how to draw shining objects, an open rose and more. * This Week’s Special Offer Each week, my Featured Art is offered at 25% off [plus any discounts offered by my Galleries]. Shop here. Thank you for visiting my galleries and for your purchases. They support Succeed and Soar. NOTE The original image was shot with a Nikon Coolpix camera. The jpg was “developed” in Adobe PhotoShop.