Peace is Within Reach...

I hope this greeting finds you well, in the holiday spirit, and ready to celebrate the season!

This year's Pinwheel Girl Holiday Card and corresponding "message from the wind" was inspired by the Big Sky of Amarillo, Texas and the yellow-petaled Mexican Hat Flower...it is the second in a series of Holiday Cards I designed to inspire thoughts about world peace, as well as individual peace within ourselves, and what it takes to find both.

I took two trips to Amarillo recently to photograph windmills ("giant pinwheels in the sky") and to interview the American Cowboys who build, install, repair and maintain the windmills of the Texas panhandle. While there I became mesmerized with the peacefulness and serenity of the Big Texas Sky...endless blue and endless clouds by day...endless black and endless stars by night.

I also was enamoured with the gentle way in which the Mexican Hat Flower reacted to the constantly driving wind of the prairies. The flowers were in a perpetual state of bending, swaying and bobbing in the forceful winds, yet they never lost their footing...they appeared so peaceful there, colorful, calm, serene, yet actively tossed about. It seemed to me that a feeling of peace, and indeed world peace, requires a lot of bending and swaying while maintaining a solid foothold.

I thought of all the times I have been in the dark in a state of what felt like an endless night. All the times I have looked up to the blue of the Big Sky for replenishment, courage, and strength. All of the times I have had to bend to find some kind of resolution. And all of the times I have had to sway to find some kind of conclusion. And I thought all of the times I have found peace when I really needed it from all of these actions, places, and thoughts.

So that is how this year's Pinwheel Girl Holiday "Message from the Wind" Card came together. I hope you like it. I wish you all a Happy Holiday and a Bright New Year but most of all I wish all of you the gift of inner Peace in a World at Peace.