Monday, May 29, 2017

Motivation


I dislike motivational speakers. And as you will see, thinking about them galvanizes me to do something in response. In this case I was looking through my recent sketches which feature trees and I remembered that a motivational statement had appeared on my daily motivational desktop.
Here's the statement:
“If you don't like where you are, change it. You're not a tree.”
—so says Jim Rohn who has turned telling people what they already know into a million dollar career.
As it turns out, movement, as we experience it, is a very limited attribute when one looks at all the living and nonliving things on this planet. So maybe "not liking where you are" is not a matter of getting up and moving like Okies en route to California. There are other time tested strategies. You might consider thinking like a tree: provide food and shelter to other living things, invest in your unseen roots, appreciate your tough skin and brighten the corner where you've been planted.

trees and wall
05-12-17
ink

The island
05-15-17
ink, charcoal

Willow tree
05-16-17
ink, charcoal, paint stick
Pine tree
05-17-17
ink, charcoal, paint stick
reflections of trees
05-25-17
ink, charcoal, tusche, paint stick
drawing gear
05-12-17

2 comments:

  1. A few days ago, I read in the internet, I no longer know where, a Zen Buddhist poem, and this was something like this: I looked behind me and saw the two trees and I asked them: Could you keep company with an old man like me? And although the trees could not speak, they promised me, that we three would stay friends for a lifetime.
    I mean this is a diffent look at trees than Jim Rohn. Dear Rob, thanks and best wishes

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you dear Klaus. You are a tree in my forest.

    ReplyDelete

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