Randy Elrod's Blog, page 57

What Can You Do With A Minister? (with apologies to Irving Berlin and the movie White Christmas)

When the time was over, why, there was praise galore

For the politicians who were in the church

But for ministers things were not so grand

And it’s not so hard to understand

[Refrain:]

What can you do with a minister

When he stops being a minister?

Oh, what can you do with a minister who falls down?

Who’s got a job for a minister

When he stops being a minister?

They all get a job but a confessor no one hires

They fill his head with praises while he’s upon the stage

And they spread the crimson carpet wh...

What Was Your Favorite Childhood Christmas Gift?

Ah, our childhood days. Magic, purity, simplicity andprepubescent life.

My fondest memories were of Christmas morning and waking up to discover what Santa had brought this naughty, ahem, nice young boy.

Some of my favorite gifts back in the turbulent nineteen sixties were Lionel train sets, play gas stations, Hot Wheels, Tonka dump trucks, and those little green army men stuffed in plastic bags by the hundreds.

I suppose many psychological essays could be written about that previous sentence....

A Merry Christmas Watercolor

8.5″ x 11″ Original Watercolor on handmade paper Not For Sale

Archival Giclee, Ready-to-Hang Canvases and Standard Prints Available—Click HERE

“Alas! How dreary would be the world if there was no Santa Claus!… There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.”

—Francis B. Church

Related posts:
My Latest Watercolor—Serenity “Serenity” “Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste...
Sémillon — My Latest Watercolor 15.5″ x 15.5″ Framed & Floated Or...

Falling Upward

In the first half of life, we are naturally and rightly preoccupied with establishing our identity—climbing, achieving, and performing. But those concerns will not serve us as we grow older and begin to embark on a further journey, one that involves challenges, mistakes, loss of control, broader horizons, and necessary suffering that actually shocks us out of our prior comfort zone.

Eventually we need to see ourselves in a different and more life-giving way. This message of “falling down”—th...

My Top Ten Books of 2012

I love to read. It is food for my soul. This year my books are dominated with therapeutic and psychological themes. Imagine that.

Here is a list of my top ten books of 2012. These are books I read this year, not necessarily books that were published in 2012.

1. The Master and His Emissary—This book is very academic, and at times dense. But, it is one of the most important books I’ve ever read. The “Master” in this book is the right-brain and the “Emissary” is the left-brain.Iain McGilchrist p...

Top Five Greatest Regrets

Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse who spent several years working in hospice care, caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. She recorded their dying epiphanies in a blog calledInspiration and Chai, which gathered so much attention that she put her observations into a book calledThe Top Five Regrets of the Dying.

Ware writes of the phenomenal clarity of vision that people gain at the end of their lives, and how we might learn from their wisdom. “When questioned about any reg...

Sanary-sur-Mer — My Latest Watercolor

12″ x 16″ Original Watercolor and Graphite on handmade paper

Purchase Original, Standard Prints & Ready to Hang Gallery Wraps HERE

“Fantasy, it gets the best of me, When I’m sailing. All caught up in the reverie, every word is a symphony, Won’t you believe me?”—Christopher Cross

Related posts:
My Latest Watercolor—Serenity “Serenity” “Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste...
“Ostracized” — My Latest Watercolor “Ostracized” Exclusion comes when you offend or disappoint a community...
M...

Powerful Words from The New Bond Movie “Skyfall”

Though much is taken, much abides; and though

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are…

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

—”M” quoting Tennyson from Ulysses

Related posts:
5 Reasons I Loved Blue Like Jazz The Movie I received an invitation to see a screening of Blue...
The Seven Last Words of…Spock I am considering submitting a talk to the 2013 South....

Where Soul Meets Body — My Latest Watercolor

24″ x 33″ Original Watercolor and Graphite on Handmade Paper $750

Purchase Original, Standard Prints & Ready to Hang Gallery Wraps HERE

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.”– Martha Graham

Related posts:
Incognito — My Latest Watercolor 12″ x 16″ Watercolor & Graphite on handmade paper Purchase...
Objectified — My Latest Watercolor 24″ x 33″ Original Watercolor on Handmade Paper $850 Also...
The Wild, The Free — My Latest Watercolor 24″ x 33″ Original Watercolor on handmade paper $850. Also...

Incognito — My Latest Watercolor

12″ x 16″ Watercolor & Graphite on handmade paper

Purchase Original, Standard Prints or Ready to Hang Gallery Wraps HERE

“Legalism is an elegant incognito, devised to save a person from the vexation of emotions.” —Randy Elrod

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.