The Four Agreements

For my birthday last month a dear friend gave me a book entitled "The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book)." Little did I know how much this book would effect my life and act as a constant reminder of ways to help me enjoy life. In the book author Don Miguel Ruiz touches on four points (the four agreements) to help one gain personal freedom. It is amazing how practical and simple these "agreements" are. Here are the highlights of each agreement:

Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Don't Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement you can completely transform your life.

Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

It is interesting to me that whenever I open this book to a random page and read for a while, it seems to be exactly what I was needing to hear at that time. These four agreements are so simple. After all, isn't it the little things in life....

Banksy

While cruising around the internet this morning checking out the latest news in the world, I somehow found myself on a list of the "Top 10 Guerilla Artists" according to Time Magazine. Well, one of them really caught my attention with his work. His name is Banksy (well, at least that's this street name). No one apparently knows his real name since he works as an anonymous graffiti artist. This British artist "has made his name adorning public buildings with his subversive stencils, sneaking his work into major museum collections and pulling pranks like leaving a life-size figure of a Guantánamo Bay detainee at Disneyland. Britain's Bristol Museum opened a major exhibition of his work in June. Several of his works have been pulled off the streets and sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. But Banksy himself has managed to keep his true identity a secret — a fact that only enhances his cult appeal." (from Time.com)

Absence

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. Well, I am beginning to believe that. After four years living the creative-on-demand life that art school brings, I found myself with absolutely no desire to even pick up a camera let alone be creative. And here I had just graduated with a photo degree. Several months of not photographing for pleasure later, I believe I have recovered (or am at least on the way). I'm starting to get that bug again, that desire to go out and shoot because I want to. To shoot whatever the heck I want to shoot because I can.

I am also rediscovering that love for all things creative. I can see the seeds of future projects being planted and ideas beginning to grow. I am excited to reconnect with the art world, to become part of it once more. This is not to say that I ever full left, but rather took a bit of a hiatus from it.

So here's to a new start, with new goals and some of the same dreams. Here's to a renewed vision!