New Year & Diva Challenge 249

Happy New Year!
Toronto had our first cold snap - just a snap. We barely noticed it. Glad we got that over with. The anticipation of extreme circumstances can be difficult to bare. When will it happen? What will happen? How severe will it be? Is it going to happen? Toronto has had such unbelieveably warm temperatures and yet it was inevitable that the cold would come.

Life is like that. Things are going along smooth, and we have no idea when some unknown and difficult event will hit us. We may believe we are doing everything right, and that nothing harsh will come along. And then when it does, we are not sure ... did we cause it? did we deserve it? what could we have done to avoid it?

It is a test and expression of our character of how we handle difficult circumstances. Do we go with the flow? or do we fight against its consequences? Do we make the most of what has happened, and learn some lessons that shape who we are as people?

Winter and cold weather may be a rather mundane example of extreme circumstances eventually affecting us; but it is an example and test to who we are and how we deal with it.

Zentangle has provided a way for many of us to learn to deal with the unexpected. Zentangle creates beauty from the unknown. The abstract and unknown way of shaping the piece of art allows us to be open to newness, change, new possibilities. It removes limits by seeing these unknown  deviations as opportunities and not challenges. The metaphors for life that come from Zentangle reach our subconscious and affect our attitudes and ways of being in the world. Zentangle provides rich experiences which touch us through repetition and beauty. May we watch and wait, so that the next challenge can shape us and let us be reshaped.

Tangle On!