Before I go there, though, I want to talk about my dog Maxie. First, let me start with Beeble.

Beeble was a poodle. He was small, but not one of those toy poodles you carry around in a purse. One day we noticed him bumping into the furniture and thought it was odd. We took him to the vet a week or so later and found out that he had detached retinas in both eyes. He was blind.

What was fascinating about Beeble was that the blindness didn’t stop him. He continued doing all the things he did before he became blind. It took him a while, but he got used to walking around the house without bumping into things.

Beeble didn’t get upset. He didn’t mope around the house because he couldn’t see. He didn’t complain that life dealt him a lousy hand. He kept on living each day as it came.

You can learn a lot from a dog. They live in the moment. They don’t worry about the future, and they don’t lament the past. They love unconditionally and will never betray you.

I’ll share another insight Maxie taught me. Don’t try to outsmart a dog. It’s pointless. Even if you get one over on him, he’ll get you back.

I used to watch “The Dog Whisperer” with Cesar Milan. When he went into a home to correct a misbehaving dog; he usually ended up training the owners.

We domesticate our pets. We completely ignore, though, how we domesticate ourselves. You must understand domestication. It will determine how successful you will be as an artist.

Bill’s advice today is much more profound than it appears.

Bill says that your life is your own. No one should tell you what you should do or how you should act. And yet, isn’t that what’s been happening to us all our lives?

Bill reminds us once again that we are “next to God.” What he’s saying is that you are already perfect in the eyes of God. When others try to change us, they imply that God must have messed up something.

Bill knew that there is greatness inside you. Before you can attain it, you must love yourself. That’s why Bill said he loved us. He was showing us the way.

It isn’t easy to break decades of domestication. I don’t know about you, but I still hear voices in my head from my parents, my teachers, and others. Everyone who thought they knew how to run my life better than me. It’s been a struggle to break from the book of rules that others imposed on me for the last seventy years. I’m tearing out the pages, though, one at a time. And you can too!

When you sit at your easel, be in the moment. Make your painting time a fulfilling experience. Enter the state of “Flow.” Be at peace with the universe and one with your art.

Free yourself of the judge who tries to rule your life. Free yourself from the rules you had no part in creating. The next time you hear that voice inside your head, remember Bill’s words. “You are next to God.” You are perfect already.