I have completed a sketch of a male and female lion that my husband, retired graphics specialist, Richard Murrey drew and illustrated many years ago and a print of which, hangs in our living room. He used to display his art on a couple of websites, but now, has decided dealing with the random emails and follow through is too much for him. I’m simply thankful he continues to write a few songs and organize them for our radio shows!
I’m making this more of an art day because I am still dealing with shoulder/arm/back pain. I have a TENS machine and laid on it last night when I couldn’t sleep. I also have a QiCoil and PowerPlate handheld massager that helps, but I can only use these for so long as they must be recharged. I now see why people buy two of such things! The TENS is plugged directly into the wall outlet so I could use it all night, though that’s probably not recommended. I’d go back to my naturopath musculoskeletal doc, but I don’t want to have to go to him (at $160 an hour) every time this acts up. And since this is the second time in 8 months it’s been this bad, I think rest, herbal tincture (which thankfully, arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon), and massaging it will help it heal soon. It was so bad last night, it went from an aggravation to a barking pain! And I finally gave in and took ONE Ibuprofen. I do NOT know how people live in pain. I can’t.
I enjoyed sketching first with a pencil and then going over the lines to perfect them (though I still don’t believe there’s really any Perfection in art), and then adding the colors. As well, I enjoy blending the oil pastels around on the page, as well as kind of making brush strokes (or crayon strokes).
My mantra now is: Art communicates more than words, builds new neural pathways (in the brain), and connects us all!
Yours in consciousness-expansion as we evolve and revolve during our mystical awakening. All while doing-my-egoless-best, to take you on a limitless, spiraling thought ride to better health, through doing more with ease, to help us sustain the JOY in our lives! (With lots of Gratitude throughout.)
Sheila “Spiral Sister” Murrey
The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, diagnose or prescribe.
About us
My husband and I are creators of life-enhancing spiritual and soulful information, music, and digital designs for wholly vibrant living.
Find me over on my YouTube channel for JIGGLE WIGGLE, mobility movement videos, video book reviews, plants, art, and more at: https://youtube.com/@spiralsister
My husband is an award-winning illustrator, plus he’s a seasoned guitarist, bass player, and songwriter (with over 1,400 original songs). You can view some of his artwork and listen to many of his songs at: https://www.youtube.com/user/richardmurrey
I just finished a sketch of a Thai scene (thanks and link to Linda Lewis), from a lovely sketch that Linda shared on Apr. 7th! That’s how far behind I am on my sketching. That is on the list of several I’ve saved from Linda to help me learn and stay motivated. It was one of her first Thai scenes with all the wires! I don’t know if I did it justice or not, but will share it anyway.
Thai sketch, from Linda Lewis’ sketch of Apr. 7th, 2026 –Sheila Murrey
I have another Integrating the spirals blog in draft, but waiting to make the video for it, so it can wait.
Art takes precedence for me today since I am in shoulder/arm/back pain AGAIN. Ugh! I do NOT know what I did, but I have had to take a break from the hanging mobility exercises. And to think, that was what got me out of the pain for the last 2 months! I just don’t know. On top of that, I am aggravated because I finally had my Zoom call with my new doctor’s office (the one in Maine I went to nearly two months ago for all the testing and blood labs) and they did NOT give me much new information to go on. Plus they wanted $2500 for a membership just to save me on all the prescriptions and supplements they were going to recommend. NOPE! I ordered the bare minimum supplements from them and will discuss the rest with my local naturopathic doctors (husband and wife docs). I’m all slathered up with Stopain and the like (topical pain relievers since I don’t take Ibuprofen or such), just to be able to type! I also ordered more of the herb pain tonic too (from Christina at Herbal-Cottage in Florida). It’s a godsend for nerve pain relief.
Closeup of my Thai sketch, from Linda Lewis’ sketch of Apr. 7th, 2026 –Sheila Murrey
I did enjoy sketching this scene and think it helped take my mind off this pain. I did the whole sketch with a brown pencil that did not erase well. So, anything I felt I needed to change, I took care of when I began coloring with the oil pastels. I’m learning now to only shade one side of pots with color to allow for the light that might be shining on them from the top/other side. Let me know if that worked well. I loved the spirals in this, but of course!
I continue to remind myself that Art can communicate more than words and not only connects us all, but makes new neural pathway connections in the brain too! Ah, the brain is such a funny (odd, not haha funny) and mysterious organ of the body.
My book, We Are All Connected: The How and The Why
Find me over on my YouTube channel for JIGGLE WIGGLE, mobility movement videos, video book reviews, plants, art, and more at: https://youtube.com/@spiralsister
Yours in consciousness-expansion as we evolve and revolve during our mystical awakening. All while doing-my-egoless-best, to take you on a limitless, spiraling thought ride to better health, through doing more with ease, to help us sustain the JOY in our lives! (With lots of Gratitude throughout.)
Sheila “Spiral Sister” Murrey
The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, diagnose or prescribe.
About us
My husband is an award-winning illustrator, plus he’s a seasoned guitarist, bass player, and songwriter (with over 1,400 original songs). You can view some of his artwork and listen to many of his songs at: https://www.youtube.com/user/richardmurrey
My daughter did this sketch a month or so ago at the art studio where she works. I knew as soon as I saw her photos of the progression she took on it, I knew I wanted to sketch it. But with high prioritizing my mobility exercises (at various times throughout my day), prepping food and cooking then performing the subsequent clean-up, working on reformatting the paperback version of my book, doing interviews and Zoom calls to promote it, reading and working through about 6 books, reviewing and posting video book reviews of such, and attending a book club, plus a variety of summertime things going on while the granddaughters are off school, and walking with hubby (sometimes to our local coffee shop for brunch or other times for lunch or an early dinner at another local place)–this blog totally takes a back seat! Whew!
I’m betting at least some of you can relate though and have just as much going on.
Now, here are the sketch progressions:
Top is the sketch by my daughter; bottom is my version of the sketch with new pencil. –Sheila MurreyTop sketch by my daughter – step 2; bottom is my version – step 2. –Sheila MurreyTop sketch by my daughter – step 3; bottom is my version – step 3. –Sheila Murrey
But I finally broke open the new pack of pencils I bought and erasers, AND I did actually use an eraser on this sketch a few times, so yes, I can see where these are going to help improve all of my future sketches quite a bit! Thank you to my dear fellow blogger and long distance “soulie” friend, Linda Lewis (watercolor sketch artist and weight loss inspiration to me). I think Linda may love this–though I couldn’t figure how to do the water very well either. Linda and I have chatted about how to create a more fluid water look.
Top sketch by my daughter – step 4; bottom is my version – step 4. I thought I was done, but do you notice what I forgot? –Sheila MurreyMy completed version and I reworked some of the grass and rocks too because I noticed that the white helped some of the other colors blend better. –Sheila Murrey
I stopped a few times to check to see if I was enjoying the sketching. While I can’t say I smiled much throughout this, I think it’s because I still see it as another task to get done. And then, also to try and “get right.” But I keep reminding myself that Art can communicate more than words and connects us in my subconscious ways. And THAT makes me happy.
My book, We Are All Connected: The How and The Why
Find me over on my YouTube channel for JIGGLE WIGGLE, mobility movement videos, video book reviews, plants, art, and more at: https://youtube.com/@spiralsister
Yours in consciousness-expansion as we evolve and revolve during our mystical awakening. All while doing-my-egoless-best, to take you on a limitless, spiraling thought ride to better health, through doing more with ease, to help us sustain the JOY in our lives! (With lots of Gratitude throughout.)
Sheila “Spiral Sister” Murrey
The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, diagnose or prescribe.
About us
My husband is an award-winning illustrator, plus he’s a seasoned guitarist, bass player, and songwriter (with over 1,400 original songs). You can view some of his artwork and listen to many of his songs at: https://www.youtube.com/user/richardmurrey
Fellow bloggers and long distance friends, Gray Summers (retired nurse, songwriter/musician, fan of all things vintage, and Johnny Depp) and Linda Lewis (watercolor sketch artist and weight loss inspiration to me) may LOVE this post! (Click their names to visit their blog sites.)
My high school friend Teresa Damron has retired from her nursing career and been drawing and sketching, with her most recent being watercolor sketches! I’ll share a couple of her exquisite animal sketches (yes, she works on commission too), and these fantastic bookmarks she’s now selling (though I do not believe she has a public facing website, yet):
Bookmarks for sale. –Teresa Damron via FacebookCloseup. Bookmarks for sale. –Teresa Damron via FacebookMy comment on Teresa’s bookmarks Facebook post.Artwork by Teresa Damron (Background of her Facebook page)Pan pastels and colored pencils artwork by Teresa DamronTeresa is starting to get known. I’ll let you know if she sets up a website.
It’s funny, because as soon as I saw Teresa’s post (about the bookmarks) on Facebook the other day I thought of Linda. When I’d first ordered something from Linda’s former Etsy shop (back a few years ago), she’d included a wood burned bookmark in the package as a gift! I loved it so much that I ordered several more, and eventually a few more pieces of her art. I still love each one and the tote I gave to my daughter with penguins on it. Wink!
Art often communicates more than words on how much we love the same things and connects us in sublime and subtle ways–perhaps more than we are consciously aware!
My book, We Are All Connected: The How and The Why
Find me over on my YouTube channel for JIGGLE WIGGLE, mobility movement videos, video book reviews, plants, art, and more at: https://youtube.com/@spiralsister
Yours in consciousness-expansion as we evolve and revolve during our mystical awakening. All while doing-my-egoless-best, to take you on a limitless, spiraling thought ride to better health, through doing more with ease, to help us sustain the JOY in our lives! (With lots of Gratitude throughout.)
Sheila “Spiral Sister” Murrey
The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, diagnose or prescribe.
About us
My husband is an award-winning illustrator, plus he’s a seasoned guitarist, bass player, and songwriter (with over 1,400 original songs). You can view some of his artwork and listen to many of his songs at: https://www.youtube.com/user/richardmurrey
I’m continuing to play and sketch per my soulie sister type friend, Linda Lewis from Arkansas, who now lives in Thailand–she’s a lifelong artist. And we connect on many levels. So, I’m sharing two sketches I did, following her painted sketches as models.
See Linda’s painted sketches on her blog at: https://creativeartworksblog.com – Each of her blog articles that I used as a model are included below the images:
Per my husband’s suggestion, I used dual-tip brush markers to fine line some details and color in the darker portions. I began the sketch and colored in using oil pastels, so I changed up my process a bit. I think it worked better. Linda suggested I sketch with a pencil and use an eraser as needed. I may do that soon, as I goofed on the second sketch and had I drawn it with a pencil first, for sure I would have fixed that elbow! Ha! But I’m not aiming for Perfection, so there’s that.
Screen capture from Linda’s post on 4/9/2026; All credit goes to Linda Lewis: https://creativeartworksblog.com/2026/04/08/thursday-4-9-2026/My oil pastels sketch with brush tip marker used to enhance black lines. –Sheila MurreyScreen capture from Linda’s post on 4/20/2026; All credit goes to Linda Lewis: https://creativeartworksblog.com/2026/04/20/monday-4-20-2026/My oil pastels sketch with brush tip marker used to enhance black lines/areas (I’m really not good with arms/hands!). –Sheila Murrey
Happy Spring! We’re enjoying one of our first 60+ degree days here in New England (New Hampshire, USA). And it’s been sunny too! We had some warm days before this but then they were rainy days. Ugh.
Classes
I did a two-day online class with Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi this week on AI. I learned a couple things but mostly, it was a waste of time. I did a lot of chatting during the presentations though (they streamed it with canned applause, which I don’t like), but when they got to the sales spiel, I turned it off. I went to try the first thing “animate this” on Google Gemini and it wanted to charge me $3.99 a month (for the first two months, then it would cost $7.99). No. There’s too many AI apps to choose from for me to pay anything of them–and hubby pays for ChatGPT so if I really need something that badly, he’ll use that to create it for me. I just wanted to test what I’d learned and wanted to animate my book cover to see what it would do. I wasn’t going to pay Google (of all companies) to test the new prompt. Ugh.
I then also took a five-day online class with Dr. Sue Mortimer. She sort of does what I do in Integrating the Spirals, and so it was neat to get a new fresh take on the whole breath work thing. And she is an excellent presenter. I simply have my hands into too many things to sign-up and pay for anything right now. Thus, I took these free classes to sort of see how I align with them. I liked Dr. Sue, but I am sitting with a couple of things she said as I wouldn’t present “the soul” the same way she does. And that’s okay. Just different. Dr. Sue has great things to say to us, heady people. And as you know, and as many of you are too, when one is an analyst, writer, researcher, philosopher, and/or intellectual, we sit a LOT! And she did a good job of explaining how we need to bring our breath INTO our bodies (using central channel breathing). Again, her presentations were worthwhile. I’m thankful for the ripples she puts out into our world!
As for Tony Robbins though, I’m thankful he feeds so many people. But I think he’s off my radar now. I put some opinion on Facebook. I don’t know if I should post it here. But let’s just say, bottom line, he’s a trans-humanist. And I am NOT. I do not want nano bots injected into my body. He’s for that. You may wonder why he brought that kind of thing up while talking with a worldwide audience of something like 800k people, yeah, when it was an AI class. I wondered that too. It didn’t leave me with a good feeling. Sorry, Tony!
Health update
I’m done with the chiropractor, at least for now. The naturopathic doctor has helped me immensely just from ONE visit! I really must leave Dr. Paterson a Googe review because I am still amazed at how much better I feel, again, after just my first visit. I go back to him in a little over a week. He did something called myofascial and positional release (I think). At least I know he did myofascial release and then I looked up the last two words. He’s also a DOM, Doctor of Oriental Medicine, and I’d thought he might use acupuncture on my left foot, but no, at least not yet. He was much more gentle than the chiropractor too, so there’s that. It’s almost like he must work on people who have rheumatoid arthritis or fibromyalgia or such and can do so much good, even using a gentle approach.
I have movement in my two toes (big toe and second toe), though the inner portion/side of each is still numb–but there’s no pain–on the left foot now (I estimate about 40% improvement), and the sciatica pain has reduced about 75%! Plus, I ran out of nerve tonic and I noticed I don’t have nerve pain from the shoulder situation anymore. YAY! I plan on resuming dancing soon, maybe even, (gasp!), tomorrow!
In Progress
I’m also in the process of putting together a keynote speech for new friend, Gina Virginia Casella’s upcoming conference. I’m thrilled to do it and it’s been fun thinking of ways to explain Interconnectedness along with introducing my new book.
The podcast conversation we recorded the other day should be Live soon–I’ll keep you all posted. And I enjoyed the gemstone reading Gina gave me. You can see examples of how she does those, as well as find the last conference recordings at: https://buymeacoffee.com/ginavirginiacasella/
We finished the 8 Harry Potter movies and I’m drafting a review of these with a great title that just dropped into my head last night. I should have it out tomorrow.
As I said, I have my hands in a lot of things right now. Ha! Apologies as always for my lateness in responding to your comments. I do love reading your comments though!
I’m still reading Russell’s book and others, the new Tarot book came in and I’ve already been taking a look at it.
And let’s continue sending prayers and loving vibes to our author friend and blogger pal, Michael and his family in the UK (https://peacefulrampage.wordpress.com), as his half sister is recuperating from an incident and she lives far from him. I sure know that feeling when we lived so far from my daughter during that time in 2022 when my husband had a stroke. Distance makes things harder when there’s serious injury or illness within a family.
Integrating the Spirals – JIGGLE WIGGLE
In my YouTube channel, I encourage those “over 50” to:
Open to lifelong learning (observe, gently question, and loosen up pre-conceived beliefs, aka ‘Programming’)
Become more aware of our thoughts and emotions to encourage more ease
Loosen up and move our bodies (we’re stuck in our heads also due to our “Programming” and physically unhealthy)
And become strong and resilient in spirit, soul, mind, and body.
Yours in consciousness-expansion as we evolve and revolve during our mystical awakening. All while doing-my-egoless-best, to take you on a limitless, spiraling thought ride to better health, through doing more with ease, to help us sustain the JOY in our lives! (With lots of Gratitude throughout.)
Sheila “Spiral Sister” Murrey
The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, diagnose or prescribe.
About us
My husband is an award-winning illustrator, plus he’s a seasoned guitarist, bass player, and songwriter (with over 1,000 original songs). You can view some of his artwork and listen to many of his songs at: https://www.youtube.com/user/richardmurrey
Here’s an older video on Vimeo of us performing back when we lived in an RV on an off grid plot of land in northeastern Florida: https://vimeo.com/416711742?ref=fb-share
My award-winning artist husband suggested I use one of our dual-tip brush markers to do my sketch and then color in with the oil pastels, so this is the sketch project I worked on the other day for Easter. I am still learning so, be kind in your comments. My sketch is the second image that follows, Linda’s is the first (because it was the image I used as my model).
My chiropractor said the numbness of the inner parts of two of my toes was due to the Extensor Hallucis Longus tendon. I have been able to get a bit of flex upward out of the toes since daily fascia blasting, massaging them and the foot with essential oil (Balance from DoTerra), as well as performing acupressure and red light therapy on it, AND using the tuning forks on it nightly before bed. I continue doing heel raises (sometimes called, toe raises or ankle raises), which I believe are helping too!
If you’re very curious, I found this link from the Mayo Clinic about the condition, but since I have no pain, only numbness and inability to lift those two toes, I’d say, thankfully, I must have a very mild case of it: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23126-extensor-tendinitis
The pain in my shoulder and down my arm has subsided again, thankfully! And yes, I had to take the herbal tincture again. But also, I found that my Therasage red light heating pad also has a TENS option and I had not ever tried that before. So, this last week, I’ve been using that! Wow! It really feels good and eliminates the sciatica pain for at least an hour or two afterwards. I can’t believe I didn’t try it for my shoulder! Just goes to show we can have solutions right at our fingertips and overlook them for one reason or another!
All of this DIY health stuff is only one example of the philosophy I teach and share in Integrating the Spirals. My motto is “Use what you have and what you know, and integrate into your daily routine in any way, preferably the easiest way possible.” Ironically, had I been talking about that Therasage pad more often, even in a Zoom session, I might have thought about trying the TENS option on it months ago! Alas, I am a student of my own philosophy for sure!
I offer Zoom sessions to talk through situations like this and give you ideas on when/how to integrate the physical tools and techniques, even software tools, for whatever challenges you’re facing–if you’re interested and open to it. Let me know in the comments.
Integrating the Spirals – JIGGLE WIGGLE
In my YouTube channel, I encourage those “over 50” to:
Open to lifelong learning (observe, gently question, and loosen up pre-conceived beliefs, aka ‘Programming’)
Become more aware of our thoughts and emotions to encourage more ease
Loosen up and move our bodies (we’re stuck in our heads also due to our “Programming” and physically unhealthy)
And become strong and resilient in spirit, soul, mind, and body.
Yours in consciousness-expansion as we evolve and revolve during our mystical awakening. All while doing-my-egoless-best, to take you on a limitless, spiraling thought ride to better health, through doing more with ease, to help us sustain the JOY in our lives! (With lots of Gratitude throughout.)
Sheila “Spiral Sister” Murrey
The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, diagnose or prescribe.
About us
My husband is an award-winning illustrator, plus he’s a seasoned guitarist, bass player, and songwriter (with over 1,000 original songs). You can view some of his artwork and listen to many of his songs at: https://www.youtube.com/user/richardmurrey
Here’s an older video on Vimeo of us performing back when we lived in an RV on an off grid plot of land in northeastern Florida: https://vimeo.com/416711742?ref=fb-share
I got aggravated with my fountain pen the other day and jumped on Amazon to order some oil pastels and sketch pad to continue drawing and sketching without the mess of a pen that leaks ink all over my hand. And yes, I probably did something wrong with the pen that caused it, but for less than $20 I have easier tools to work with. Thus, I’ll probably sketch MORE! And isn’t that what we want? More doing and less aggravation? Yes!
My friend, Linda Lewis from Arkansas, who now lives in Thailand got me started drawing/sketching) as a new hobby, and I’m really enjoying it! See Linda’s painted sketches over at her blog at: https://creativeartworksblog.com
Last fountain pen sketch (using one of Linda’s sketches as a model); my husband really liked this even though I messed up on it a bit (line from neck to chest didn’t connect). –Sheila MurreyPastels and paper. –Sheila Murrey
Here’s a few of my oil pastel drawings:
Yin and yang symbol, butterfly, and spiral (all done from memory). –Sheila MurreySky, water, land project using spirals. –Sheila MurreyHearts project. –Sheila MurreySketch of the girl (Linda’s model I sketched with fountain pen earlier); I’m not very happy with it, but this is from memory using the oil pastels. I will improve! –Sheila Murrey
I’ll post another update on Tuesday or Wednesday to let you know what the chiropractor says about my two toes. I continue to do fascia blasting, and massage with essential oil (Balance from DoTerra), as well as use acupressure and red light therapy on it, and a bit of feeling is coming back. I also do heel raises (sometimes called, toe raises or ankle raises), and that may be helping as well.
That’s what I teach in Integrating the Spirals. Use what you know, and integrate the various techniques into your day. I think it’s easy, but some people need to talk this stuff through, and that’s why I offer Zoom sessions. More to come on that, but if you’d like to begin right away, let me know in the comments.
Integrating the Spirals – JIGGLE WIGGLE
I’ve rebranded JIGGLE BUTT to JIGGLE WIGGLE per one of my followers comment!
I’m now encouraging those “over 50” to open to lifelong learning (observe, gently question, and loosen up their pre-conceived beliefs, aka ‘Programming’), become more aware of their thoughts and emotions to encourage more ease, loosen up and move their bodies (too many are stuck in their heads and physically unhealthy), become strong, and resilient in spirit, soul, mind, body. And to question EVERYTHING!
Yours in consciousness-expansion as we evolve and revolve during our mystical awakening. All while doing-my-egoless-best, to take you on a limitless, spiraling thought ride to better health, through doing more with ease, to help us sustain the JOY in our lives! (With lots of Gratitude throughout.)
Sheila “Spiral Sister” Murrey
The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, diagnose or prescribe.
About us
My husband is an award-winning illustrator, plus he’s a seasoned guitarist, bass player, and songwriter (with over 1,000 original songs). You can view some of his artwork and listen to many of his songs at: https://www.youtube.com/user/richardmurrey
Here’s an older video on Vimeo of us performing back when we lived in an RV on an off grid plot of land in northeastern Florida: https://vimeo.com/416711742?ref=fb-share