A friend invited me to celebrate the New Year for Trees.
Today is the New Year for Trees in the Jewish Calendar.
The Torah says: “Man is a Tree of the Field.”
Olives, dates, figs, and pomegranates are the fruits of the trees that are eaten on this day.
The pine tree photo is my creation. Not confident that you can make out that I used glitter on the leaves.
This of course is not my religion because I’m not a member of any organized religion that meets in a church.
How interesting that everyone was painting because in the New York Times yesterday there was a news article about art therapy. Apparently the second lady Karen Pence wife of our vice president has taken an interest in art therapy over the years.
Professional art therapists wonder if Pence echoes her husband’s anti-human rights stance and will try to get art therapists to convert gay people to heterosexuals. Others in the art therapy profession laud the second lady’s attempt to promote their field.
We painted and ate dried fruits and nuts.
Let’s celebrate the New Year for Trees for what it can be:
A reminder that we are human beings and part of the natural world. That when we water the soil our trees bear fruit. We also bear the fruit of our goals when we water and nurture our imagination.
I’ve written about friendship at HealthCentral. I’ll be publishing a Bruni in the City column about friendship in early 2018.
It’s true–and I’ll end here with this–that often those of us with a mental health challenge do best in artistic environments.
A verified significant number of Artist/Creatives have mental health conditions. Far better to encourage these gifts and use them to create things of beauty to share with others.
Sketch, paint, sculpt, write fiction, cut hair, apply makeup, sing, dance, act–it’s all good.
Left of the Dial 