I’m so happy to be participating in the Gathered Thoughts Linky Party over at Love Feast Table today!  When my sweet friend, Chrissy, asked if I would like to join in the fun I immediately said, “Yes”!!   Gathered Thoughts is a vintage style box filled with thoughts for each day of the year…these thoughts are to be used “to spur conversation at the dinner table or inspire your day”.  These cards are also just perfect as art prompts.  I love putting a favorite quote with one of my sketches or paintings and think this box full of sweet inspiration would definitely keep the creative juices flowing.  Upon receiving my card, I just felt that it was so fitting.  Anything about cups, filling them up, how they runneth over…well, let’s just say that as a prior tea room owner…it’s my “cuppa TEA”!!  I read the quote a couple of times and instantly thought I should do a cute little sketch to go along with it.  So I grabbed a pencil, sketchpad, and watercolors and started sketching.  I still have some more shading and fun details to add, but here’s the start ~

Our lives are filled with so many things each and every day.  There are happy moments full of sunshine and excitement…those moments that just make you want to CELEBRATE.  And, then, there are moments and events that fill our lives with upset, worry, and dread.  It’s difficult to not share the hard, difficult things, and I do believe that we need to share these moments if they can help us to heal or grow.  Sometimes, however, we just become so frustrated in life that it may feel easier to just vent about all the bad stuff…you know, kinda “get it off your chest”, and before we know it, well, we’ve forgotten to share the good things.

Our cups fill up…sometimes they runneth over.  They are filled with all sorts of things, and it’s our choice to decide what we want to spill out…what we want to share.

The arrival of this beautiful quote had perfect timing for me.  My husband and I headed to the beach yesterday afternoon to watch the sunset, and I {as always} had my bag of tricks with me…favorite books, sketchpad, pens, etc.  I happened to grab one of Norman Vincent Peale’s books and loved reading some of his beautiful passages allover again.  I have been dealing with a frustrating allergy flare up since late last week so I wasn’t too sure if I was up to going at first, but I thought about the breeze from the ocean and how relaxing having my toes in the sand always is for me so I grabbed that bag and off we went.  The words in the book just spoke to me so, and I thought about this card that I would be using as a writing prompt for today.

It was such a beautiful thing…I loved how the card had arrived while I had been out of town, how I had mulled it over in my mind numerous times since my first glance at it, and how I revisited some of my favorite quotes that happened to go along with it just perfectly.

“Deliberately speak HOPEFUL about everything.  Go out of your way to talk optimistically about everything.”   ~Norman Vincent Peale

Life is filled with negative and positive things.  Don’t we truly want to focus on the POSITIVE?  And, just what if we do?  What if we all choose to BE POSITIVE, choose to talk about the good stuff, decide to share our thanksgiving…our feelings of gratitude?  I think we will find that the people we are sharing it with will feel hopeful and have a desire to look for the positive in their life…and, then, they will want to share it.  Norman Vincent Peale talks about “little negatives” and how he figured out how to push them out of his conversation.

“I found the best way to eliminate them was deliberately to say a positive word about everything.  By talking good results you invoke the law of positive effects and good results occur.”  ~Norman Vincent Peale

Of course, this does not mean that negative and frustrating things will not happen in life just because we speak with a positive heart, but I think we will not focus on those things as much if we do.  And, I also believe that a positive {thinking} heart is one filled with optimism and a desire to find the good in things.  I promise you this…I have had times in my life that were oh, so frustrating, and for some of those times I have just let the negativity overcome me.  And, then, there have been times that I have chosen to find the “silver lining in the cloud”, and what a difference that has made in how I dealt and coped with the situation.  If you are a close friend of mine {and, I’ve even said it to strangers}, you’ve probably heard me say this very thing…”I chose to look for the silver lining…that is what I wanted to focus on.”   Think about it…the more energy we give to the “little negatives”, the more energy they steal from our lives {goodness, I’m going to have to do a sketch for this quote…I like this!!  🙂 }

So, today I leave you with this sweet beginning for your tomorrow…

“We are all cups, constantly and quietly being filled.  The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.”  ~ Ray Bradbury

Each day we have a choice…there will be moments when we are called to speak…it’s our choice, MY choice, YOUR choice to choose what we will allow to spill out…

Make it beautiful, let it be something others will want to share…

**Be sure to visit the Gathered Thoughts post on Love Feast Table so you may enjoy visiting the other blogs that are participating!**

Big Hugs to you, sweet friends!!

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Thanks so much for visiting my blog!2012 Copyright Ann-Margaret’s/Ann-Margaret’s Visions