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About Varied / Hobbyist Premium Member nmsmithMale/United States Recent Activity
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*nmsmith
Nathan Smith
Artist | Hobbyist | Varied
United States
I am an education technologist, former elementary school teacher, artist, and photographer.
Interests
I found a message I think I need to repeat to myself each morning when I arise and face a new day...

YouTube Video:  [link]

About the video:  A Moving Art original short. This inspirational video was well responded at TED conferences and filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg motivates those around him as happiness is revealed. Music is by Gary Malkin and narration is from Brother David Steindl-Rast.  It begins with a young girl talking about imagination, and then Brother David Steindl-Rast says the following...

Here is the text of the video...

You think that this is just another day in your life...
It's not just another day.
It's the one day that is given to you - today...
It's given to you.
It's a gift.
It's the only gift that you have right now...
...and the only appropriate response is gratefulness.

If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is...
If you learn to respond as if it were the first day in your life
and the very last day
then you will have spent this day very well.

Begin by opening your eyes, and be surprised that you have eyes you can open
That incredible array of colors that is constantly offered to us for our pure enjoyment.

Look at the sky.
We so rarely look at the sky.
We so rarely note how different it is from moment to moment, with clouds coming and going.
We just think of the weather, and even with the weather we don't think of all the many nuances of weather...
We just think of "good weather" and "bad weather."

This day, right now, with its unique weather, maybe a kind that will never exactly in that form come again..
The formation of clouds in the sky will never be the same as it is right now...

Open your eyes.  Look at that.

Look at the faces of people whom you meet.
Each one has an incredible story behind their face, a story that you could never fully fathom.
Not only their own story, but the story of their ancestors.
We all go back so far...

And in this present moment on this day, all the people you meet, all that life from generations and from so many places all over the world flows together and meets you here like a life giving water if you only open your heart and drink.

Open your heart to the incredible gifts that civilization gives to us.
You flip a switch and there is electric light.
You turn a faucet and there is warm water, and cold water, and drinkable water...
a gift that millions and millions in the world will never experience.

So these are just a few of an enormous number of gifts to which you can open your heart.

And so I am wishing you will open your heart to all these blessings and let them flow through you.
That everyone you will meet on this day will be blessed by you,
just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch, just by your presence.

Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you.
Then it will REALLY be a good day.

Comments


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:iconboxohobo:
I found your gallery somehow and I can't stop favoriting everything.
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:iconnmsmith:
*nmsmith 23 hours ago  Hobbyist General Artist
That's very kind of you. Thank you. I noticed you like New Age music. So do I. What artists do you enjoy most?
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:iconboxohobo:
So far I think Enigma is all I know unless Solar Fields counts.
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:iconnmsmith:
*nmsmith 13 hours ago  Hobbyist General Artist
Enigma is good. I enjoy them too. David Arkenstone, Peter Buffett, Patrick O'Hearn, David Lanz, Carol Nethen, Ray Lynch, Suzanne Cianni, Lesiëm, Two Steps from Hell are a few others that you may enjoy. You can go to grooveshark.com and listen to most of them free before deciding to buy anything.
Reply
(1 Reply)
:icondrizztofmielikki:
~Drizztofmielikki Apr 25, 2013  Professional General Artist
Thank you so much for giving me permission to use and alter your work. Here is the result for our May Storytelling flyer: [link]
Reply
:iconnmsmith:
*nmsmith Apr 25, 2013  Hobbyist General Artist
Looks great! And you're welcome. :) Have a wonderful day.
Reply
:iconbeholdentolove:
=Beholdentolove Apr 24, 2013  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Very beautiful and inspiring works!
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:iconnmsmith:
*nmsmith Apr 24, 2013  Hobbyist General Artist
Thank you, Naomi. That's very kind of you. Hope you're having a wonderful day.
Reply
:iconbamboo-water:
Mood: Neutral ~bamboo-water Apr 8, 2013  New member Hobbyist Digital Artist
I see that you were recently running JWildfire on a Mac under OS 10.7.

I am running under OS 10.8.3. Do you have any specific instructions on how
to install JWildfire on a Mac?

I have been unable to find any really clear instructions.
Reply
:iconnmsmith:
*nmsmith Apr 8, 2013  Hobbyist General Artist
Just unzip the package. You will need to have JAVA runtime installed and enabled on your Mac. (see this link - [link])

Once you have JAVA installed on your Mac, open up the JWildfire folder you unzipped. You see a file - j-wildfire-launcher.jar Double click on that. It should start up the launcher. If it doesn't or you get some kind of weird error message, then ignore that file and look in the LIB folder inside the JWildFire folder. It will have a file named j-wildfire.jar - double click on that and things should go ahead and run just fine. You don't really need the launcher file.

I found that on one of my Macs, the launcher worked, but on two others it didn't - so I played around until I found the file that actually launched the program.

Hope this helps.

Nathan
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:iconbamboo-water:
Mood: Joy ~bamboo-water Apr 9, 2013  New member Hobbyist Digital Artist
Hi Nathan,

Thank you very much for the information. I have JWildfire up and I am starting through the tutorials.

the Best,
rich
Reply
:iconnmsmith:
*nmsmith Apr 9, 2013  Hobbyist General Artist
Glad to hear it. I think you're in for a lot of fun. Andrea1981G ([link]) posts a lot of JWildfire flames, and usually includes the parameters in the description. So you can highlight the parameters and copy them, then in JWildfire click on the "From Clipboard" button, and then you can play from there. She's very helpful, too, if you message her.
Reply
(1 Reply)
:iconnameda:
=Nameda Apr 3, 2013  Hobbyist General Artist
thanks for the re-watch Nathan :hug:
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:iconnmsmith:
*nmsmith Apr 3, 2013  Hobbyist General Artist
No trouble. Not sure how I lost you from my friends' list in the first place.
Reply
:iconnameda:
=Nameda Apr 4, 2013  Hobbyist General Artist
it seems to be a dA glitch, I had vanished from several friends lists, and although I didnt do a thing to my lists several had vanished from mine during my absence from dA hope you are doing great
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:iconstebev:
Hi Nathan

Thanks for sharing your tutorials, I've used three of them to create this [link]
Cheers
Steve
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:iconnmsmith:
*nmsmith Apr 1, 2013  Hobbyist General Artist
Well done, Steve!
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:iconstebev:
Thanks Nathan :)
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:iconrowanraine:
Hi Nathan, I love the picture of you and your wife. You both look so happy! By the way, you have some art here [link]

I found several ones, as per usual.
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:iconnmsmith:
*nmsmith Mar 19, 2013  Hobbyist General Artist
Thank you. We are a happy couple! And thanks for the heads-up on the wallpaper site. I'll go check it out. Have a great day!
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:iconayngelphoenix:
~AyngelPhoenix Mar 19, 2013  Student General Artist
~Smiles~ Well, at least they posted your name with them... ~Tam~
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:icon1001g:
:love: your gallery
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:iconnmsmith:
*nmsmith Mar 17, 2013  Hobbyist General Artist
Thank you!
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:iconayngelphoenix:
Mood: Joy ~AyngelPhoenix Mar 17, 2013  Student General Artist
~Grins~ Oh, very nicely said! That's just how I have learned to greet each day I'm given. Thank you for sharing... ~Tam~
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:iconnmsmith:
*nmsmith Mar 17, 2013  Hobbyist General Artist
You're very welcome!
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