{"id":4661,"date":"2013-02-07T09:07:33","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T14:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/?p=4661"},"modified":"2013-02-07T09:07:33","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T14:07:33","slug":"blank-canvas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2013\/02\/blank-canvas.html","title":{"rendered":"Blank Canvas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/everystockphoto\/sxc2\/49\/67\/5\/background-isolated-texture-49675-l.jpg\" alt=\"Variations on an artist\\'s paint palette.&lt;br \/&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;Please support my work&lt;br \/&gt;by visiting the sites where&lt;br \/&gt;my images can be purchased.&lt;br \/&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;Please search for \\'Billy Alexander\\'&lt;br...\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I love how each day starts with a blank canvas. What masterpiece shall we create today?&#8221;-Mark Semple<\/p>\n<p>Each morning, we are given the gift of 1440 minutes. It comes in a package wrapped with a ribbon of infinite possibility. You may think, as you are presented with it, that you know what it contains, but the reality is, it is truly a surprise. Each moment\u00a0is ripe with possibility and it takes only one tweak of thought to change what you find when you open it.<\/p>\n<p>The same is true with regard to the artistic metaphor that New York based coach, who refers to himself as a &#8220;Passion Dude&#8221;, Mark Semple uses. Imagine beginning with a completely clean slate, despite what may have transpired before your head touched down on your pillow and you snuggled beneath the blankets and journeyed off to dreamland. While the seeds we plant moment to moment, grow our bountiful harvest, we can still &#8216;start a new life&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>In any given day, we may be faced with joys and challenges, illness or injury, fun and frolic, inspiration and indignation; all part of the mish-mosh, soul stirring soup pot that we immerse in. We are offered an opportunity to pick up metaphorical markers, prodigious paint brushes, creative colored pencils and go for it. No artistic training needed.<\/p>\n<p>Today, mine\u00a0began at early o&#8217;clock when my son got up and I heard him rattling about. Drifting in and out of twilight state, the Muse beckoned me to awaken to be a partner in creation of word pictures. When She speaks, I am often helpless to resist. Once I finish this entry, I will head over to the gym for my playout, and then to my &#8216;day job&#8217; that involves counseling with folks who are in recvovery from addictions of various sorts. Somewhere in this next 24 hours, I intend to write more, do promo for my radio show, and my other endeavors, plan a fun weekend with whoever shows up to play. I will then\u00a0plant seeds for\u00a0 next week&#8217;s activities, which in typical oddly juxtapositional form includes being a guest on a radio show, seeing a childhood musical icon Peter Yarrow; from Peter, Paul and Mary\u00a0at a local bookstore and getting together with and interviewing relationship and sexuality educator, Reid Mihalko who created Cuddle Party for which I am a certified facilitator (and that&#8217;s just on Monday!)<\/p>\n<p>Somewhere in there, will be sleeping, eating, cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping, getting tax info together for my accountant and likely shoveling snow, since we are going to be visited by Jack Frost here in the Philly area. Cosmically coincidentally, as I am typing these words, the song A New Life sung by Jim James from My Morning Jacket is coming out of my computer speakers.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of whatever presents itself, Mark, I do intend to create a masterpiece.<\/p>\n<p>How do each of you intend to take up your art supplies and color with your creative juices?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/estock_dev\/fspid11\/54\/80\/85\/artist-canvas-hand-548085-h.jpg\" alt=\"A painter working on chinese ink paintings. They are for sale.. but all so expensive that I can't even begin to judge it's artistic merits after seeing the sticker price.\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.successfultogethercoaching.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow me\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.successfultogethercoaching.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/Ge8ryYC8E08\">http:\/\/youtu.be\/Ge8ryYC8E08<\/a>\u00a0 A New Life by Jim James<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &#8220;I love how each day starts with a blank canvas. What masterpiece shall we create today?&#8221;-Mark Semple Each morning, we are given the gift of 1440 minutes. It comes in a package wrapped with a ribbon of infinite possibility. You may think, as you are presented with it, that you know what it contains,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,11,13,33,19,3,14,16,7,52,38],"tags":[2810,993,1304,2808,1303,458,1245,1244,2809,994],"class_list":["post-4661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-affirmations","category-bliss-bites","category-blissfull-thinking","category-creativity","category-empowerment","category-gratitude","category-how-to-invite-bliss","category-my-personal-bliss","category-re-creating-your-life","category-recovery","category-transformation","tag-a-new-life","tag-cuddle-party","tag-jim-james","tag-mark-semple","tag-my-morning-jacket","tag-new-york","tag-paul-and-mary","tag-peter","tag-peter-yarrow","tag-reid-mihalko"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blank Canvas - The Bliss Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2013\/02\/blank-canvas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blank Canvas - The Bliss Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; &#8220;I love how each day starts with a blank canvas. What masterpiece shall we create today?&#8221;-Mark Semple Each morning, we are given the gift of 1440 minutes. It comes in a package wrapped with a ribbon of infinite possibility. You may think, as you are presented with it, that you know what it contains,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2013\/02\/blank-canvas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bliss Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/snuggleyoga\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-07T14:07:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/everystockphoto\/sxc2\/49\/67\/5\/background-isolated-texture-49675-l.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EdieWeinstein1\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Blank Canvas - The Bliss Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2013\/02\/blank-canvas.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Blank Canvas - The Bliss Blog","og_description":"&nbsp; &#8220;I love how each day starts with a blank canvas. 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She has also contributed to several anthologies and personal growth books. Edie has interviewed such notables as Ram Dass, Wayne Dyer, Debbie Ford, don Miguel Ruiz, don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. Marianne Williamson, Grover Washington, Jr. Noah Levine, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Weaver, Ben and Jerry and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She calls herself an Opti-mystic who sees the world through the eyes of possibility. 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