This is one of the paintings I had mentioned in an earlier post where I said I had been painting things that had an openness to them….in opposition to what I feel on daily basis. I haven’t been doom scrolling. I had to put a stop to that. But when I read a bit of news, I feel distressed. I feel like in my work lately, whether it’s landscapes or mixed media, I am creating breathing spaces. Places that one can calm down and feel some peace.
Oftentimes we create what we wish for.
A reader of this blog recently left a comment about Mary Oliver’s poem “Why I Wake Early”. I happen to have her book Devotions checked out from the library these past few week and it just so happens that that poem is in there. Here it is in case anyone else needs to fill their heart with something good and gentle and inspiring.
Why I Wake Early
by Mary Oliver
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.
.