After I lay down at night and even before I am totally awake, the adversary is bidding to deceive and is ready to plant defeating thoughts in my mind causing anxiety and depression.
 He wants us to be hopeless, faithless, and negative, He definitely doesn't want us to be positive when we get up. He wants us to have a bad attitude and be selfish and self centered, full of hatred, bitterness, resentment, doubt, unbelief, and fear ----------to be mad at everyone if possible.
     But thank god, through Jesus Christ and His Atonement the way has been made for us to be redeemed from all of those negative patterns! We can resist the devil and trust God's power in order to live victoriously today!

Today is the 1st day of my journey to happiness!

When I was young my Parents taught me that God wants me to enjoy my life. That this life is a gift of education. He wants me to take it in abundance so it can be filled with an overflowing joy that will spill into the loves of others. He gave us a text books full of instructions called Scriptures on how to find Him for the keys to unlock the prize box.

Todays Scripture:

     "When I said, My foot is slipping, Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, held me up."  ~PSALM 94:18

I will try to day to start the day on the right foot.

                                                          (Painting by Greg Olsen combined with my digital painting)

This is a great article I found that has helped me understand my

 depression a little more.

At one time or another, everyone has been depressed. For this reason, it would not seem to be a mysterious and new problem, but it is. The latest studies on popular antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil indicate that about 50 percent of patients get little or no benefit, but lots of unwanted side effects. These are people with mild to moderate depression, which account for approximately 70 percent of depression cases.

Is there a way to help them and to get millions of other depressed people off the pill?

This is now an urgent question. Doctors keep writing prescriptions, but back in the research lab, the findings are discouraging. It turns out that antidepressants don't correct imbalanced brain chemistry. And there's no real proof that the brain chemistry of depressed people is any different that of people who aren't depressed. All of this is bad news for big pharma, but it opens the way for other approaches. So let's start from scratch.

If you met a young person with awful table manners, what would you think? It's natural to suppose that this behavior started in childhood and turned into a habit. What if the same is true for depression? Most patients who complain of depression cannot say when it started. They talk about depression running in the family. This indicates that depression has three components:

·         1. An early outside cause.

·         2. A response to that cause.

·         3. A longstanding habit.

Let's rid our minds of calling depression a disease, just for a moment. Severe, chronic depression can be approached like other mental disorders. But you aren't ill if you get depressed after a bad divorce. We commonly say things like "She's out of her mind with grief" when someone loses a beloved spouse, but grief is natural, and the depression that comes with it is also natural. What this tells me is that depression is a natural response that can go terribly wrong.

Read more copy and paste in your address bar: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/How-to-Heal-from-Depression#ixzz417LlWTFF

Self-Taught Photography?

Student photographers may share the same passion, but they don’t all share the same education anymore.

Professional photographers and many college professors alike tend to agree that technology-wise, photography has drastically changed. 

Now days many people claim to be photographers due to the advancements of digital cameras, but at least 90 percent of self-taught photographers under the age of 40 know nothing of how to develop real film in a dark room. Many photography courses do not even require the old 35mm and dark room knowledge now.

Weather student photographers are self-taught or learning from photography professors, photographers agree a certain “eye” and talent is needed for a good photo.  As a professional photographer myself, I feel that taking classes greatly enhanced my ability to understand the mechanics of the equipment as well as some of the verbiage. However, even though classes can be helpful, but there is not always the need or ability to spend the time and money on them. Many artists make good photographers and many photographers are not artists, but have a very good eye for what makes art.

With photography, you either have it or you don’t; you either have the eye or not. I don’t believe anyone can be trained to have an “eye”.   It is the ability to see the brilliant in the ordinary, to feel the emotion of the scene or the meaning of the seemingly meaningless.It is a talent that drives the artist to keep painting or drawing, or the photographer to keep taking pictures. 

There are many different reasons why artists become photographers. For instance, Norman Rockwell, had the “eye” from childhood back in the early 1900’s when cameras were not really available to the general public. But as a boy he knew he wanted pictures of the emotions and humor he saw in people and events. So he began to draw from his own models and props. Later when cameras became available, he found that drawing and painting from pictures rather than live models was much more convenient.  Thus, he became a very good photographer in his later years.

I like to do this also. Although, I have never tried to do live models.  I was always to shy and afraid to ask anyone to stand still for me that long.

You can see more of my art and photography at www.symplyrosie.com

Alex through my Eyes

He is amazing! he makes my heart beat faster. With him I don’t need to go to Africa to feel the beat.

Yes, I am talking about Utah’s very own Alex Boye. When I hear a hit on the radio I cannot wait to hear it from Alex in “African Style”!. The rhythm moves me, makes me incredibly happy! Makes me want to pa-a-arty!

The rhythm of music has always been in my head and my heart. When I was a child I just couldn’t get into the church music.  It never matched the beat that was always going on in my head.  I know it always made my mother unhappy when I was always urging her to speed up the music when she lead the congregation in church.  There was a movie that came out in 1965 called “Billie” with Patty Duke where she would run track in school and when they asked her what her what her secret was as to running so fast and she said “well there is a rhythm always going on in my head and if I want to go faster I just speed it up”.  I totally related to that!  I heard it when I was only about 5 years old but it stuck in my head and when I would run or dance it was always to the rhythm in my head. Then when I turned 16 disco came along. OMG this is all I wanted to do!  Dance and feel the beat of the music! 

I have always wanted to go to Africa and be surrounded by the music. One day my Dad found some old bongo drums while making one of his runs to the dump and thought of me.  He cleaned them up and had new skins put on them. I was so over joyed when he brought them home.  Now I could play the beat that was in my head!

Alex’s voice, his music, his rhythm, stirs and awakens my heart.  I want to sing with him, I want to dance to his music.  

But do you know what really puts the sweet frosting on the cake?  When I listen to and watch this amazing artist perform, the burning in my heart tells me that he is my brother and we share the same sweet testimony that Jesus is the Christ and Savior of the world and that music is one of the main powers of creation that he used to create us and this beautiful world and we both belong to his church.

Thank you Alex for bringing me the music that makes my heart swell with emotion and makes me sing and dance with joy

~Rosie.