Blog

January is the month for reflection and new beginnings, making commitments for change and considering where we are headed next.  I was excited about writing my first blog for the year.  I ended 2020 with a message of love and hope and wanted my first blog of 2021 to be inspirational.  However, before I had a chance to write it, I watched on television the horrible attack on our state capitol and our democracy.  Suddenly I felt paralyzed.  I couldn't write or paint or do anything other than watch the news and cry, and I'm still reeling from the pain and the shock a week later. 

As I looked around it appeared that life was just continuing on as normal...as if something so consequential had not happened.  I'm not judging anyone else, but for me it felt like I was in some kind of bubble moving in slow motion while the rest of the world was moving forward in normal time.  The sensation was actually similar to what I felt when my sister died.  While I'm still struggling, I realize that I cannot let these perpetrators cause me to lose hope.  I need to keep moving forward with my creativity because art heals - me as the painter and you as the viewer.  However, as we try to get back to normal, I do think we all need to pause and consider the fragility of our freedom.  "But a constitution of government once changed from freedom, can never be restored.  Liberty once lost is lost forever."  John Adams

I rendered the painting above in late December.  I had been looking at some of my photos from a winter storm last year.  In the previous afternoon the sky was dark grey, and in the evening the wind blew fiercely with a dense snowfall.  The next morning before people were stirring, I took a walk through the woods and around an open field taking photos.  As the sun rose higher, the shadows danced in hues of blue and violet, the water in the creek reflected a crisp blue sky overhead and the winter grass peeking through the snow was golden.  I reflected on the stark contrast in the storm the night before and the peace of the following winter morning and compared it to what we experienced last week.  It gave me hope that we will move beyond the current storm, and that the goodness of humanity will prevail. 

It seems that part of the message in my year-end blog may be even more relevant now than a few weeks ago, so I will repeat part of that message here as follows:

Love is the answer.  We can move beyond all the hate by living without judgment and to aspire to unite rather than divide.  If we can maintain love for one another, hope and unity, we can figure out how to mend the soul of humanity and the fragile state of the environment by reconnecting the thread that brings us all together as a strong force.  As Ghandi said, "let's be the change we wish to see in the world."

Love is patient and kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Love is not arrogant or rude or self-seeking, and does not dishonor others.

It does not insist on its own way; it is not easily angered, it is not irritable or resentful.

Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love protects and trusts, always hopes and endures all things.

(taken from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8)