Dear Yogis,

I recently got some commissions for family silhouettes, and doing them I asked myself  “why don’t I do more of these? I love them”.  So I am, and I invite you to take advantage of this time.

Imagine your husband, your wife, your children painted in profile and displayed on a wall dedicated to family portraits as you can see in especially in the feature wall of family silhouettes to the left….. This is from “Hello” magazine, and as you can imagine is quite trendy.

Really only the size of the frame changes much, some are round, some are square,  some are modern some are definitely antique, especially the dominant one in the middle, yet somehow they all fit together.

The individual paintings (and they are paintings not photocopies) are all about  the same size, approximately 4 inches square which is the required size for miniatures.  Above that and they are no longer in that class. The ones to the right are more modern. I like round mounts or frames, but that is a personal choice.

My paintings are in black on high quality watercolour paper.  If you would like one of yourself, your husband, and/or your family I will need  A  clear photocopy, scan or photograph OF A PROFILE (If I can see two eyes it is not a profile) to work from.  No computerisation is involved.   The cost is $35 for one profile, $125 for  a family group of four  individual paintings and $85 for a wedding or married couple in one frame (plus postage).   The works will arrive ready to frame (or print).  You can Direct Debit, or PayPal and I will be putting Afterpay on my new Shop on my web site.  Email me if you would like to begin a wall of family members, so much nicer and more personal than photographs or facebook message scraps…yogafirst2@bigpond.com

They don’t have to send beautiful photographs.  The wrinkles and flaws won’t show… No plastic surgery or photoshopping required.  Just clear PROFILES.

JOY.  Doing these paintings (any painting for others or even yoga) gives me JOY.  When it doesn’t I will stop, or change.  When I lose my joy, the first thing I ask myself “What am I focussed on? Where is the emphasis? What am I thinking about?”  When I am not progressing, it is usually because I am focussed on my problems,I am thinking about some concern or frustration in my life.  I am thinking only about what I have to do tomorrow.  When I get caught up and totally focussed on me, it is a formula for mentally spinning my wheels.

I have realised it is very selfish to go around dwelling on my life, my problems, to the exclusion of others.  One of the best things to do if you are having a problem is to help someone else with theirs.  If you want your dreams to materialise, then first help someone achieve theirs.  When we meet other peoples’ needs God makes sure that we receive ours.

We were created to give, not simply to please ourselves.  If you miss that truth, you will miss the abundant, overflowing, joy-filled life that God has in store for you.  It is not enough to think kind things about others, we need to express them.  As the old saying goes “Love is not love until you give it away”.  Don’t go through life as a taker, be a giver.

Some years ago one of my clients in rehab who had been a pot smoker for 30 years kept asking me “When am I going to be well?” and “When will I know I am well?”.  Every day, numbers of times a day he asked the same two questions.  I told him that when he left the facility it would be a good idea to go work for the salvos, or any other volunteer work to get his mind off himself which would aid in his recovery.  He left and a few months later I got a call… he said “I am working for the Salvos and I hate it. When will I know I am well?”  Nothing had changed.. and I can be pretty sure he would still be looking for comfort from drugs and material things. You can’t give on the basis of getting something in return – it doesn’t work that way, and you will never be content.  You will never be “well”.

You have to start where you are. Develop an attitude of giving.  You can pray for someone in need, buy a coffee for someone else, small things.  Somebody needs what you have to give, not your way, their way. You may have been trained to guard your assets (even if just small change) by parents who went through tough times.  You are not them. You can’t protect anything as we have learned during this covid experience.  Things happen over which we have no control….  bush fires, floods, theft, illness (even death) many things can catch up with us.

If you give things away, you are just changing the notion of time – eventually everything will go away.  If you give things away before they are taken from you,  you get the joy of giving.  Your things are NOT YOURS. You are just able to use them for whatever time they stay with you, you are only the caretaker. .

Like my family of paintings your “things” are yours for a short time. Love them and then let them go.

LOVE AND BLESSINGS….

NAMASTE – JAHNE