Painting and a Life Revelation

This past weekend my daughter and I went to CheersPablo. We chose the Northern Lights painting to try. I was a bit nervous as I had not painted much of anything except walls since high school! (High school was a long time ago!)

The white canvas was a bit intimidating, but I had to dip my brush in the paint and go for it. We began to develop our picture, and I noticed that I am a messy painter. I had splattered blue paint on my yellow paint, some were pretty big splats, too. Now I am getting frustrated and wondering is the picture ruined? I keep plugging away till it is time to do the trees which includes a lot of detail. I am trying to be so careful and not mess up, again frustration is setting in. The instructor did say that no tree is perfect, but I am still trying to make MY trees perfect. I am up real close to the canvas so I see every detail, every flaw, and everything that I feel is a mistake. The instructor advised the class to get up, take a look at everyone else’s paintings, and our own from a distance. Guess what? The paintings don’t look so bad, and you don’t really see the flaws from a distance.

This made me think about how I sometimes look at myself – up close. Wow, there are some lines showing on my face, things don’t look quite the same as 30 years ago. Yet, I feel like I am more comfortable with who I am. These lines are from a life lived; my body has had two wonderful children, and my hair has some “grey” highlights. Again, all signs of a life lived.

I believe we can all purpose to look at ourselves as a painting; stand back and look at your life, what is good about it, what you can appreciate in your life; focus less on the lines and imperfections. We can not only look at ourselves this way but those around us too: family, friends, and even complete strangers.

Even though everyone in our class painted the same picture, not one picture was the same. Again everyone’s life is a little different, too. Appreciate your self, where you are, and what you have done thus far in your life. Each of you are a beautiful picture from a life lived. Be blessed.

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