Art Totality

“Single” doesn’t mean a heart is available and free. Married doesn’t mean a heart is not available and trapped.” -Stacey Cook   (Added one of my scarlet macaw Costa Rica pictures for fun.  He had no mate in sight, "Single" and hanging out with me.  The safety guy says, "They are not that friendly.  Plus, I don't see his mate.".  Therefore, the conclusion, he must have been bitten by a snake and was dying.  Maybe the last hours of his life, all because he was "Single".) Why in the h-e-double hockey sticks would I say, “Words, what are they good for anyway”? I will explain. Words are just that, words. What gives them meaning are the attachments such as beliefs, culture, emotions, experiences, commitment, behavior, and character to name a few. For example, “Single” might mean “I am not married,” simple as that.  For others, it might mean, “I am available to have fun”.  I will let you guess what kind of fun I mean. Words are used to he...

  Today's morning coffee reflections...how ironic it is that we are responsible for robbing our own time bank and many times we don’t even realize it. Incessant thinking about insecurities (I am 100% guilty) is one. Life is a teacher, but only if we are open to the lessons. With that, I am sharing an article I sent my mother over 28 years ago. Love life lessons!  Thank you mom for keeping what I sent you and for putting it in a place I would find it after you passed. My hope is you find The Bank to be helpful in quantifying how valuable time really is..... The "Time" Bank Imagine there is a bank which credits your account each morning with $86,400, carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you have failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course! Well everyone has such a bank, its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.  Eve...

Know thyself, written in ancient Greek (Γν ῶ θι Σ'αυτόν, gnōthi seauton - Delphi maxim) happens to be my Facebook bio tagline and not by accident. The ancient Greek version of this beautiful philosophical maxim is on the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, Greece and is traditionally attributed to the Seven Sages of Greece (legendary group of philosophers, mostly Chilon) or Apollo himself. (Retrieved July 14, 2025 from  Knowthyself - Wikipedia ). Gnōthi seauton serves as a reminder to seek self-knowledge before deciding (Plato). Interpretations changed over the years, but really the interpretation you have is what matters.  My interpretation is parallel to the later writings that imply "knowing theyself" is the study of the universe to better understand one's soul. Unfortunately, we did not get to see the Temple of Apollo while in Greece, but we did get to visit Delos. How ironic that one of my favorite excursions was our journey to Delos Island in G...

In response to an exhilarating, thought provoking, STEAM class at ISU, this blog article emerged.  I had explained to Dr. Malone that soon I was going to write my response to her class and asked for her to share. Upon hearing the question, my first reaction to this question was, how cliché.   Then the wheels started turning, “Wait, how old is my younger self?”.   The ISU student responded to my question, “18”.   Well, darn it I thought, I’m not the panelist with that question to answer.   When I was 18, what I needed to hear and believe was that “You are going to be ok”.   Internally my pain was deep, my smile was a way to hide that from others.   Anxiety disorder was not something we talked about.   Sadly, we did not talk about anything that was not positive.   But this really is not about how deep the pain was at 18, it is about what I needed to hear and believe.    As creatures, we are continuously changing.   Who you ...

       He has the same sparkle, she said to herself as she tilts her head to the side. What did you say about the road up ahead? which is all she caught from the conversation. In a strange way she feels like she is in a trance, everything in her head went silent after stepping foot on this part of the path.      The familiarness with everything is like she had done this before, like she knows who this is. But she has never traveled this path, never been to these woods. How could this be? She never ventured outside the palace.      He looks at her with curiosity, but kind eyes and asks, "are you ok?"   Her instinct was to lie, to say, oh yes, I am just perfectly fine. Then the words started stumbling out of her mouth as if someone else was speaking.      "Nope, I am not fine, I seem to be lost…very lost. Then she cleared her throat, the whole point of taking this path was to find two men that robbed me of my life. ...