Spiritual Art Blog - *Ed P

Ed Parkinson — 2012-02-13T12:58:14+00:00

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Friendship

Ed Parkinson — 2012-02-13T12:57:34+00:00

A friend asked me to do a cover for a newsletter with the theme Friendship. This is the first rough concept which I will now work into a finished piece.

What would love do?

Ed Parkinson — 2012-02-13T12:53:25+00:00

Thought for the week

What would love do? This is a great question to ask when we are unsure of what to do in a particular situation. For example, a friend was recently flummoxed by a repeating pattern in her life. Here's her story.

'Una' had recently been shopping with her two daughters of four and eight. She had forty Euro with her but within an hour she had spent it on cloths and some unnecessary items. She had forgotten that she needed the money to pay a bill later that week. When she remembered the bill and realised that she had over spent, she asked her inner guide “What am I going to do about that bill now that my money is gone?”

Shortly after that, she bought a snack for herself and her daughters in a café. She handed in a ten Euro note and the cashier handed her back the change of a fifty Euro note. She now had in her hand the money she needed to pay the bill later on in the week.

She now faced the question, Is this my inner guide's answer to my problem with the bill or is it a test? Has life given me what I need because I asked for it? Is this money coming to me because at some point in our lives the cashier or the owner of the café owed me the money? Is it karma I am being repaid or is it karma I am about to create?

Her mind was becoming overloaded with the questions and the many possible answers. How could she find the right answer to this puzzle. If she choose to keep the money would she be creating new karma for herself or would she be receiving payment for karma she was owed from another time? Was she just accepting a gift from the Life-force or was she taking someone else's money?

What would love do?
As she sat there enjoying her snack, her children were happily playing together She closed her eyes and though about how life was good to her. Her children were happy, she had a delicious snack in pleasant surroundings and she had been given a gift to help her resolve the bill which was due later in the week. The Holy Spirit and her inner master had given her these gifts because they loved her. She was indeed fortunate to have this love in her life.

Her thoughts then drifted to the cashier who had given her the extra money. Did the Holy Spirit love her too? How will she feel when the missing money is discovered? Una then wondered, what would Love do in this situation? If she was Love what would she do? It then became apparent that the missing money would cause a problem for the cashier and Una would just have to find another way of dealing with her bill, later in the week. She had overspent and needed to take responsibility for her error.
As Una left the café she handed back the money that wasn't hers. The cashier was very appreciative and Una felt a sense of achievement because she had worked out how to deal with the situation. She was also uplifted by the love she had just shown the cashier. She had found the way out of the maze of mental questions by asking the simple question, What would Love do?

Is it true, is it necessary, is it kind?
Another way of asking this question is to ask ourselves, is it true, is it necessary, is it kind? For Una's situation her answers could have been as follows:
Is it true? Yes, it is true that I need this money?
Is it necessary? Yes, the money is necessary to pay the bill later in the week.
Is it kind? Yes, it is kind of life to give me this money, or No, it is not kind to the cashier who may have it deducted from her salary.

The fact that it is not kind gets to the answer but the question, What would Love do?, arrives at the answer a lot quicker. If you were Love, that energy which brightens everything it comes in contact with, what would you do? Your intentions would be for the best of everyone in the situation. You would do what is best for all in the long term which means it may be uncomfortable for some people for a while.

Una, did what was best for her in the long term. She would have be responsible for her actions such as overspending but she also received the gift of working closer with the Life-force by asking the question, What would love do?

Wishing you Love's guidance in your life.

*Ed Parkinson

For a few more ideas of what would love do, visit the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

Inspirational Love Quotes

Ed Parkinson — 2012-02-13T12:39:47+00:00

“Real love is selfless. We do continual acts of kindness to make the way easier for our loved ones.”
Harold Klemp

“The capability to love is the most noble of all qualities of Soul, for to love is a greater ability than to rule over one's fellow-man.”
Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad

“There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved. It is God's finger on man's shoulder.”
Charles Morgan

“Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.”
Eric Fromm

“Love has no desire but to fulfill itself. To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.”
Kahlil Gibran

“Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“Let your love be like the misty rains, coming softly, but flooding the river.”
Malagasy Proverb

“Do I love you because you're beautiful, Or are you beautiful because I love you?”
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

“For you see, each day I love you more
Today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.”
~Rosemonde Gerard

“Forget love - I'd rather fall in chocolate!”
Sandra J. Dykes

“Love is a sweet tyranny, because the lover endureth his torments willingly.”
Proverb

“Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.”
Peter Ustinov

“Hate leaves ugly scars, love leaves beautiful ones.”
Mignon McLaughlin

“Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law.”
Boethius

“Who, being loved, is poor?”
Oscar Wilde

“Love must be as much a light, as it is a flame.”
Henry David Thoreau

“Without love, what are we worth? Eighty-nine cents! Eighty-nine cents worth of chemicals walking around lonely.”
Laurence Marks

“A baby is born with a need to be loved - and never outgrows it.”
Frank A. Clark

“Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
Robert Heinlein

“We loved with a love that was more than love.”
Edgar Allan Poe

“The hardest-learned lesson: that people have only their kind of love to give, not our kind.”
Mignon McLaughlin

“Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.”
Jean Anouilh

“A bell is no bell 'til you ring it,
A song is no song 'til you sing it,
And love in your heart
Wasn’t put there to stay -
Love isn’t love
'Til you give it away.”
Oscar Hammerstein

“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.”
Henry Van Dyke

“It is astonishing how little one feels alone when one loves.”
John Bulwer

“If grass can grow through cement, love can find you at every time in your life.”
Cher

“Love doesn't sit there like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all of the time, made new.”
Ursula K. Le Guin

“Love never reasons but profusely gives; gives, like a thoughtless prodigal, its all, and trembles lest it has done too little.”
Hannah More

“Sometimes it's a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.”
David Byrne

“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.”
Zora Neale Hurston

If you are looking for some more inspirational love quotes you may find them on the Spiritual Inspirations page by clicking here.

Ed Parkinson — 2012-02-06T10:48:22+00:00

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Meeting Place

Ed Parkinson — 2012-02-06T10:47:45+00:00

The Meeting Place picture is now getting to the point where I'm happy with its composition. All the elements are beginning to work together. This layout will be the basis for the final picture. Now it is time to start on a larger size and working out the details.