Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.
- Melody Beattie

I seem to have a strange inclination to divide topics that capture my imagination into two often contradictory aspects. I remember once proposing a distinction along those lines to an interview subject, I can’t remember which one, probably Doug Peacock, and him responding, “There are only two kinds of people. People who divide people into two groups, and people who don’t.”

In keeping with that tendency of mine, the field of positive thinking, of imagery and creative visualization, can be divided into two different approaches.

1.     The use of these techniques to fulfill one’s material desires – more money, more stuff, a bigger house, a newer car, etc.

2.     The use of these techniques to better incorporate into one’s life the practice of living with gratitude for what one already has. Appreciation of natural beauty, for instance. Or music. Or friendship. I somewhat arbitrarily put in this category the use of these visualization techniques to deepen one’s relationship and friendship with one’s inner world.

That first approach is the one taken by most books on the subject. The second, that of gratitude, is more common as we approach the later stages of life. The life of Henri Matisse, one of the most controversial artists of his day, is an interesting example. Matisse went through a major life change in 1939 at the age of 69. He was diagnosed with colon cancer, underwent a major operation and separated from his wife.

As a younger man his paintings, in particular Woman with a Hat, were the subjects of widespread condemnation and ridicule, mostly because of the use of wild, unorthodox colors. A reproduction of his 1913 Nu Blue (Blue Nude) was burned in effigy at the Armory Show in Chicago in 1913. (It is interesting to compare that painting to one he did toward the end of his life, Nu blue II.)

And in his personal life too he was controversial. He was prone to sexual humor and to songs that made fun of the church. Once he broke up a café concert because, he said, the idea seemed fun at the time. He had a hard time keeping models because of his inclination toward profanity. His first child was born out of wedlock. As he aged though, he seems to have mellowed. The illness in particular seems to have inspired a change. During his recovery, much of which he was confined to bed or a wheelchair, he wrote:

I have needed all that time to reach the stage where I can say what I want to say. . . Only what I created after the illness constitutes my real self: free, liberated.

The book Jazz, based on his cutouts, was written during the first years of his recovery. He particularly labored over the words — although only six or seven typewritten pages, he continued to revise them for three years after the images were finished. Much of his writing in that book and in subsequent years related in some way to love, gratitude and spirituality.

During the last fifteen years of his life, he developed close, long-lasting friendships with his models including one who became a nun. That friendship led him to create the stained glass windows of Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence on the grounds of the convent where she lived. And, after years of rivalry, his friendship with Picasso deepened. They frequently exchanged gifts, including of each other's art.

That image — of an aging man, a gentle man, at peace with life — reveling in the beauty around him and in his friendships, is an inspiring one. A good end to a courageous, creative life.

Here’s an interesting video of Matisse at work.

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Below, a two page spread from the upcoming Heron Dance journal, Nurturing The Song Within. You can download a PDF of the two-page spread pictured below here, or click in the image.
To be published in early March. You can pre-order the Collector’s Edition printed on premium paper, superb image reproduction quality, high-end binding, here.