The Universe Is Smiling: "Inner Voice"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

 A: Discard the inner critic but listen to your inner voice.

"The only tyrant I accept in this world is the 'still small voice' within."

 - Mahatma Gandhi

"Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to you, something is out of tune."

- Carl Jung

The Universe Is Smiling: "Companions"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: Come along for the ride!

"The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind of companion."

- William Makepeace Thackeray 

The Universe Is Smiling: "Self-Confidence"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

 A: "Self-Confidence"

"Self-Confidence gives you the freedom to make mistakes and cope with failure without feeling that your world has come to an end or that you are a worthless person."

 - Author unknown

"Smile, for everyone lacks self-confidence and more than any other one thing a smile reassures them."

 - André Maurois

"With realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability one can build a better world."

- Dalai Lama  

The Universe Is Smiling: "Heart Energy = Love"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Heart Energy = Love"

"The most important thing is life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in."

 - Morrie Schwartz

"If you want to be loved, be lovable."

- Ovid 

The Universe Is Smiling: "Meditation"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

I am following Paul's suggestion on the Inner Voice Village facebook site to expand on the theme of "BALANCE", such as the factors that cultivate balance "...integrity, confidence/faith, a mindful/calm mind, well-being, wisdom, insight, and freedom..." as well as the tools that help to achieve balance, such as MEDITATION. I also want to follow Clifford's idea of congruency. The last drawing with that theme didn't quite convince me. The beauty of these inspirational drawings is: YOU CAN DO ANOTHER ONE :)

 A: "If you want to find God, hang out in the space between your thoughts."

- Alan Cohen

"Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity."

- Swami Sivananda 

The Universe Is Smiling: "Congruence"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

 A: "Leap, and the net will appear."

- John Burroughs

"Rest in reason, move in passion."

- Khalil Gibran 
"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live."
- Mark Twain  

The Universe Is Smiling: "Keeping Your Balance"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

 A: "The key to keeping your balance is knowing when you have lost it."

 - Anonymous

"A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life."

- William Arthur Ward 

The Universe Is Smiling: Point of View

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

 A: "The world is wrong side up. It needs to be turned upside down in order to be right side up."

 - Billy Sunday

"From the perspective of mere representation, the external world always remains only a phenomenon."

- Wilhem Dilthey 

New Wall Calendar 2012

Dear Visitor:
Check out the second version of the 2012 wall calendar: While the first version had two images/month with the supporting quotes, this one has only one image/month with the quotes. The advantage is that the images and quotes are bigger and therefore have more of an inspirational quality than in the first version. Check it out on the calender page.

Calendar size:
11"x17" (open)
Holidays: US, Canada, Germany
Price: $25.00 + Shipping/Handling
+ $5.00 (shipping US/Canada)
+ $10.00 (shipping international)
If you would like to purchase a calendar, email me: Monika@innervoicedrawing.com

The Universe Is Smiling: Fountain of Youth

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:
Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age."
- Sophia Loren

The Universe Is Smiling: Uncertainty

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:
Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security."
- John Allen Paulos
"The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers."
- Erich Fromm

The Universe Is Smiling: "Tree Whispers"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Nature always wears the colors of the spirit."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence."
- Hal Borland

"The Universe Is Smiling 2012" - wall calendar

OUT OF STOCK
 
Dear Visitor:
24 of the most favored images of this year are assembled in one wall calendar. Each month contains 2 images together with their inspirational quotes. Check out the Calender 2012 page for more details.

Calendar size:
11"x17" (open)
Holidays: US, Canada, U.K., Germany
Price: $25.00 + Shipping/Handling
+ $5.00 (shipping US/Canada)
+ $10.00 (shipping international)
If you would like to purchase a calendar, email me: Monika@innervoicedrawing.com
Please allow up to 10 days for delivery.

The calendars arrived from the publisher yesterday and I sold several of them the first day. However, I also have gotten the request to make a calendar with ONE image/quote only.

What would you like? What speaks to you more? I look forward to your comments.

With a smile, Monika.

The Universe Is Smiling: "You Are Not Alone"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone."

- Audrey Hepburn

"But I tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you are connected with everything."

- Alan Watts

"Healing yourself is connected with healing others."

- Yoko Ono  

The Universe Is Smiling: "Appreciation"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Appreciation is a wonderful thing: it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well."

- Voltaire

"The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness."

- Dalai Lama    

The Universe Is Smiling: "Mirror"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul."

- George Bernhard Shaw

"A man's true wealth is the good he does in the world. Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror."

- Kahlil Gibran    

The Universe Is Smiling: "Skywalker"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A:  "The universe is wider than our views of it."

- Henry David Thoreau

"Look at the sky. We are not alone, the whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work."

- Abdul Kalam Azad

The Universe Is Smiling: "Fresh Start"

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning."

- J.B. Priestley  

The Universe Is Smiling: Studio Talk

Check out the new page "Studio TALK" - a look behind the scenes of the smiling universe :)
http://innervoicedrawingblog.blogspot.com/p/studio-talk.html

The Universe Is Smiling: Puzzle

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle."

- Lewis Carrol

"There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle."

- Deepak Chopra

"The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity."

- Douglas Horton 

The Universe Is Smiling: Dance

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "You've got to dance like nobody's watching and love like it's never going to hurt."

- William Purley  

The Universe Is Smiling: Leave your doubts behind!

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

 A: "Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother."

 - Khalil Gibran

"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go and get busy."

- Dale Carnegie 

Opening Reception Thursday 9/15 - 5:00-7:00 PM

The Universe Is Smiling: Simple Philosophy

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life."

- Buddha

"I have a simple philosophy: Fill what is empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches."

- Alice Longworth Roosevelt    

The Universe Is Smiling: Illusion

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Illusion is the first of all pleasures."

- Voltaire

"The trick is what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same."

- Carlos Castaneda    

The Universe Is Smiling: STOP!

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

 A: "Anger is a great force. If you control it, it can be transmuted into a power which can move the whole world."

- William Shenstone

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the only one that gets burned.

- Buddha

"If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape hundred days of sorrow."

- Chinese Proverb    

The Universe Is Smiling: Dreaming

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Dream and give yourself permission to envision a You that you choose to be."

- Joy Page 

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

- Dr. Seuss

The Universe Is Smiling: Our Beloved Nature

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "By nature we have no defect that could not become a strength, no strength that could not become a defect."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."

- John Muir

The Universe Is Smiling: Astonishment

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Explanation separates us from astonishment, which is the only gateway to the incomprehensible."

- Eugene Ionesco

"Astonishment is the root of philosophy."

- Paul Tillich

The Universe Is Smiling: Age Lessons

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Age considers; youth ventures."

 -Rabindranath Tagore

"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."

 - Friedrich Nietzsche

"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence."

- Robert Frost

The Universe Is Smiling: Simple and Clear

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

- Leonardo DaVinci

"Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature."

- Thomas Kempis 

The Universe Is Smiling: Let's Expand Our Horizons!

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon."

  - Konrad Adenauer

"The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change."

- Maya Angelou 

The Universe Is Smiling: Personality

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality."

- Erich Fromm 

"Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it."

- Bruce Lee

The Universe Is Smiling: Exploration

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "You can explore the universe looking for somebody who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and you will not find that person anywhere."

- Buddhist Saying

"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

- T.S. Eliot    

The Universe Is Smiling: Protection

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

I was listening online to a live stream of HH Karmapa's teaching, given at the Buddhist monastery in Woodstock today. The Karmapa is one of the most highly revered reincarnations in Tibetan Buddhism. When he talked about refuge to the Buddha and his teachings of compassion,  I kept drawing in good old Inner Voice Drawing fashion of "not-knowing-what-to-expect" and - voila this rather funny bird appeared :) Even though the drawing may look a bit bewildering, it evolved during the teaching session, and may therefore carry some blessing right to you.

A: "The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your day."

 - Lao Tzu

"I wish I'd seen you as a little girl, without your armor to fend off the world... I would have kept you underneath my wing... I would protect you from everything."

- Source unknown 

The Universe Is Smiling: Taking a Stand

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "We acquire the strength we have overcome."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Knowing others is intelligence;

Knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Mastering others is strength;

Mastering yourself is true power.

If you realize that you have enough,

you are truly rich."

- Tao Te Ching 

The Universe Is Smiling: Mystery

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "As I make my slow pilgrimage through the world, a certain sense of beautiful mystery seems to gather and grow."

- A. C. Benson  

The Universe Is Smiling: Reflection

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A:  "As social beings we live with our eyes upon our reflection, but have no assurance of the tranquility of the waters in which we see it."

- Charles Horton Cooley 

The Universe Is Smiling: Take a Step!

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult."

- Madame Marie du Deffaud

"Creativity comes from looking for the unexpected and stepping outside your own experience."

- Masaru Ibuka    

The Universe Is Smiling: Fly a Kite!

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.

- Heraclitus

"Don't be afraid of opposition. Remember, a kite rises against, not with the wind."

- Hamilton Wright Mable    

The Universe Is Smiling: Happiness

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is."

- Maxim Gorky

"Nothing can bring you happiness but yourself."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson    

The Universe Is Smiling: Art Reflections

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Asking my usual question, "what is today's wisdom?' I was surprised to see this rather strange creature evolve, cradling his art installation. This must be the effect of going to two art events in New Jersey over the weekend. Time to reflect about art .... with a smile, of course :)

 

"You can have the idea in one 'room' of your mind, and you can watch the figure develop in the 'room' between your hands."

- James Kay

"Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression."

- Isaac Bashevis Singer

 

The Universe Is Smiling: Bizarre!

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one's preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizarre which seems inherent in them."
- Jean Cocteau

The Universe Is Smiling: Keep it light and have fun!

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light."

- Earl Nightingale  

The Universe Is Smiling: Color Your Life!

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky."

- Rabindranath Tagore

"The cut of a garment speaks of intellect and talent and the color of temperament and heart."

- Thomas Carlyle    

The Universe Is Smiling: Relationship

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same."

- Author unknown 

"Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand."

- Emily Kimbrough 

The Universe Is Smiling: Moon Child

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Moonrise

by Margaret P. Gallagher  

Under the white moon rising

Night sings a magic song

Beauty this one brief night time

Beauty the whole night long

Follow the silver shadows

Under a silver sky

Capture the night bird's singing

Enchanted time passing by

Over the changing landscape

Watch as the slow white

moon

Gathers the night past magic

Sinks in a soundless tune.

The Universe Is Smiling: What's up?

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

 A: "A single conversation across the table with a wise person is worth a month's study of books."

- Chinese Proverb

"The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."

- Dorothy Nevill    

The Universe Is Smiling: Don't drop the ball, dear!

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Take care of the earth and she will take care of you".
 - Author unknown
"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."
- Khalil Gibran   

The Universe Is Smiling: Surfing through Life with Kindness

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A:   "Never look down on anybody unless you are helping him up."

- Jesse Jackson

"Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not."

- Samuel Johnson  

The Universe Is Smiling: Keep it Simple!

Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:

Q: What is today's wisdom?

A: "Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated."

 - Confucius

"The level of our success is limited only by our imagination and no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted."

- Aesop