“Vision Boards” are a concept I learned about a long time ago…
I remember hearing of the
importance of posting goals and dreams in front of your eyes, so they
are seen often, on a daily basis.
If you enter “what is a
vision board” on Google, this appears:
vision board
[vision board]
NOUN
1. a collage of images and words representing a
person's wishes or goals, intended to serve as inspiration or motivation.
2.
"on her vision board she put a log cabin,
a sailboat, a red car, and a man and woman dancing on a white carpet"
One of my art students
once explained to me how she’d cut photos from magazines of places she liked, to
put in front of her. She most wanted to live where she could see the ocean
daily. She moved from the finger-lakes region of upstate New York to the seacoast
of Maine (where I met her), and this dream had been fulfilled.
What we see often changes us.
Our brains often work unconsciously to make
things we see often in pictures, a reality in our lives.
For some strange reason,
we also tend to start looking like what we look at on
a regular basis.
This happens to
long-married couples. I've seen people who loved chickens start to look
like a chicken!
If war-time comes, or a
global pandemic - stark ugliness and destruction can be attached sorrows…but still, in the inner recesses of the mind and heart, wherever we are,
we can choose to dwell on beauty.
This is also a biblical concept. God told His people to put the law of God in front of their eyes as a constant reminder of their relationship to Him.
I'm told Hebrew is a very
pictorial language -
“1. TORAH. Hebrew is a
pictorial language, much like Egyptian hieroglyphics, and hence the
letters have meanings - a literal meaning, or a noun, and a symbolic meaning, a
verb or the expressed role, action, or character of the literal meaning.”
Our brains are constantly building
or strengthening sensory neurons based on what we see daily,
good or bad.
“Humans
continue to produce new neurons in a part of their brain involved in learning,
memory and emotion throughout adulthood, scientists have revealed, countering
previous theories that production stopped after adolescence.” – source, Google
This is why the quality
and visual content of the artwork and photographs hanging in our home or offices is so important!
What we gaze on
ourselves and what our children see and hear matters perhaps
more than we realize!
Messages and
advertisements viewed on television or online can positively or adversely
change us, too.
"Vision" is not only physical, or for the sighted. Even the blind can "see" with their hearts, minds, gut and senses! I've been following Benedikt Just's documentary film The Heart Revolution for a few years now. In it, he clearly shows how the Heart (or our electrical field) can see, even when someone is blindfolded!
Do you look at realism,
impressionism, abstracts or fantasy? Why?
I believe gazing on
nature’s beauty is incredibly valuable…it connects us to reality and to a sense of place.
Creation speaks without words,
like instrumental music.
It is full of order,
variety, detail, sound, light and colors which instruct and heal our souls.
“A Picture is Worth a
Thousand Words”…and “Seeing is Believing” are sayings with truth to them.
_______________
This photo blog is a
record of the changing of the seasons on Mt Mansfield, Vermont’s highest
mountain, seen from my studio window over the past three years.
I recently moved, so
these photos are now part of my memories.
The interesting thing
about this beautiful view is I had seen and admired this very place a long
time ago…not knowing it would one day become what I saw every day from my
window!
An Outhouse in Winter
In days of yore, concrete construction on a new foundation under part of our old farmhouse ran into some problems.
Winter arrived before
the foundation job was complete, leaving the house jacked up and very cold air
passing underneath a large part of the house.
The sewage pipe exiting
the house was affected by frigid temperatures and froze.
We were forced to turn
off the water coming from the natural spring into our house,
which then caused this incoming water pipe to freeze, too.
This led to having an
outhouse for a short time that winter…
It was not as bad as it
sounds.
Our outhouse had a small
electric heater, plenty of wood ashes and fresh sawdust. It didn’t smell
bad at all, actually it smelled nice!
It was actually warmer
than our home, too, which still had wind blowing underneath it.
So the outhouse became a
refuge where we would take a book and warm up.
I “decorated” the
outhouse interior – hanging a small mirror and a beautiful poster collected at
our State’s annual Farm Show – one of the Vermont Farm Show booths was giving
these posters away.
The poster depicted a
full-color photograph of Mt Mansfield, from the north side…
Many moons later, three
years ago now, I moved "by accident" to the exact location to see the same
view on our old outhouse Farm Show poster!
After doing everything I could to stay where I'd rented a small room for ten months and really enjoyed the community, all doors closed - the hand-writing was on the wall - I had to move on, once again.
My brother encouraged me before I moved. He said God would provide a more beautiful location for me. I had a hard time believing this was possible...but he was right!
I was told of an elderly lady with six dogs, a spare room and “a great view”. But was still a little blown away when I first saw the view.
I've climbed Mt. Mansfield in the past and now this view was a huge blessing to me…I am grateful for the years I
enjoyed it, in all seasons and weather!
I hope you will enjoy
seeing photographs of now my old home, too.
Make yourself a Vision Board! I will be looking for more beautiful truths, ideas, places and views to gaze on.
With Reverence for all things truly beautiful,
Elise
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” ~ Genesis 8:22
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
“My son, attend to my
words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
Let them not depart
from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
For they are life unto
those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
Keep thy heart with
all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Put away from thee a
froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
Let thine eyes look
right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
Ponder the path of thy
feet, and let all thy ways be established.
Turn not to the right
hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.”
~ Proverbs 4:20-27
“Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in
your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as
frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach
them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when
thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of
thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your
children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your
fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.” ~ Dueteronomy 11:18-21
“Finally, brethren,
whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report;
if there be any virtue,
and if there be any praise,
think on these things.
Those things,
which ye have both learned,
and received,
and heard,
and seen in me,
do:
and the God of peace shall be with you.”
~ Philippians 4:8-9
He Leadeth Me
He leadeth me: O blessed thought!
O words with heavenly comfort fraught!
Whate'er I do, where'er I be,
still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.
Refrain:
He leadeth me, he leadeth me;
by his own hand he leadeth me:
his faithful follower I would be,
for by his hand he leadeth me.
Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom,
sometimes where Eden's flowers bloom,
by waters calm, o'er troubled sea,
still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.
Lord, I would clasp thy hand in mine,
nor ever murmur nor repine;
content, whatever lot I see,
since 'tis my God that leadeth me.
And when my task on earth is done,
when, by thy grace, the victory's won,
e'en death's cold wave I will not flee,
since God through Jordan leadeth me.
Written
by Joseph Henry Gilmore in 1862, at the age of 28.
Set
to music by famous composer William Bradbury in 1864.
Based
on Psalm 23:2,3
