Transitions
Here they come, out of nowhere!
One benefit of a fifty year-old mind is the realization that I don’t need to force creative endeavors. They just appear. As long as I am mindfully aware of my insides while going about the external things, they show up.
Picture the way a cloud quietly forms out of seemingly nothing. One minute you look, empty sky. The next – there it is. Oh, and now it looks like a horse. Wait, it’s a baby riding an elephant! Yeah, like that.
As I awoke this morning, it dawned on me that the painting I’ve been working on is a mirror of what is going on in our lives right now. 2015 has been a transitional year for our family. We’ve been stretching into unfamiliar territory, one little petal at a time.
When I first laid out this painting, every spreading flower edge was well-defined. As I put out more paint, I realized I wanted softness here and there. A more gentle transition.
Every single edge is hard – not very pleasant, is it?
Don’t we all want that? A gentle, flowing movement into our next life phase? Not many of us enjoy changes that necessitate sudden, sharp transitions. Our changes this year have been exciting so we are fortunate.
We’ve had our share of events that were anything but pleasant. Sudden endings to relationships, deaths of loved ones, sudden losses of needed income – they’ve all had a role in our lives at some point. When I learned to relax and let go of my preconceived notion of how things “should be”, the sharpness was lessened.
Relax, breathe. Reach out to someone and share the pain or the joy. When you do so, the painful edges are softened. The joy is multiplied.
This painting reminds me of the ever-changing landscape of life. Soft edges, hard ones. Dark times, light ones. Little dots of bright color amidst sameness. All of it melding around each other into the unique fingerprint of a life lived. A life lived through the transitions.
Ah, some smoother transitions going on here!
My painting is not quite finished yet, but this is it’s latest state. I guess that’s how we all are at any given moment, isn’t it?
I love it Lisa!!!
Glad you like it, Theresa – thank you! 🙂
Looking so good. Very relaxing to the viewer!
You’re so kind, Carmel! And it’s wonderful you think it’s relaxing – that’s what I’m intending with this one.