unfolding

 watercolor

on cold-pressed Kilimanjaro paper

“Live the life that unfolds before you- 

love goodness more than you fear evil.”

― Jonathan Rogers, The Bark of the Bog Owl

why?

watercolor

Oh my World...!

“But grief still has to be worked through. 

It is like walking through water.

 Sometimes there are little waves lapping about my feet.

Sometimes there is an enormous breaker that knocks me down.

 Sometimes there is a sudden and fierce squall.

 But I know that many waters cannot quench love,

 neither can the floods drown it.”

― Madeleine L'Engle

the posture of grace

 

watercolor

on cold-pressed Kilimanjaro paper

You must forgive in order to understand. 

Until you forgive, 

you defend yourself against the possibility of understanding...

 If you forgive... 

you may indeed still not understand, 

but you will be ready to understand, 

and that is the posture of grace.

-Marilynne Robinson, Home

...the scales balance...

watercolor 

on cold pressed Kilimanjaro paper

“The Weighing”

by Jane Hirshfield

The heart's reasons

seen clearly,

even the hardest

will carry

its whip-marks and sadness

and must be forgiven.

As the drought-starved

eland forgives

the drought-starved lion

who finally takes her,

enters willingly then

the life she cannot refuse,

and is lion, is fed,

and does not remember the other.

So few grains of happiness

measured against all the dark

and still the scales balance.

The world asks of us

only the strength we have and we give it.

Then it asks more, and we give it.

connection

watercolor

Connection [is] the energy that exists between people

when they feel seen, heard, and valued;

when they can give and receive without judgement,

and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.

-Brené Brown

and that’s that…

watercolor  

We can’t all, and some of us don’t. 

That’s all there is to it.

 -Eeyore

"Winnie-the-Pooh

the comfort of a friend

watercolor

You and I can share the silence 

 Finding comfort together 

 The way old friends do

— Abba

"The Way Old Friends Do" (1980)

we all have it

watercolor

We all have pain 

 We all have sorrow 

 But if we are wise 

 We know that there's always tomorrow

— Bill Withers

"Lean on Me”  

listen close...

watercolor

Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child

Listen to the DON’TS

Listen to the Shouldn'ts

The IMPOSSIBLES, the WONT’S

Listen to the NEVER HAVES

then listen close to me —

Anything can happen, child,

ANYTHING can be.

 – Shell Silerstein 
“Listen to the Mustn'ts”
from "Where the Sidewalk Ends"

each friend shapes our world...

watercolor

Each friend represents a world in us,

a world possibly not born until they arrive.

-Anaïs Nin

 

aged pleasure...

watercolor

 One does not get better

but different and older

and that

is always a pleasure.

-Gertrude Stein

be...patient...

watercolor

Patience is also a form of action.

-Augusta Rodin

questions matter...

watercolor

It is better to know some of the questions 

than to have all of the answers.

James Thurber

 

dare...

gouache and watercolor on black cotton paper

Dare

 to be naïve.

- Buckminster Fuller

 

don’t make up your mind yet...

Watercolor

 The time to make up your mind about people, 

is never.

~Philip Barry

simplify...

watercolor

It is not a daily increase,

but a daily decrease.

Hack away at the 

inessentials.

-Bruce Lee

free to do right...

watercolor

Freedom consists not in doing what we like,

But in having the right to do what we ought.

- Pope John Paul II

Broken places

Watercolor

 The world breaks everyone, and afterward,

some are strong at the broken places

—Ernest Hemingway 

sharing at PaintPartyFriday 

Dark defines Light

Watercolor

The dark does not destroy the light; 
it defines it. 

It's our fear of the dark that casts our joy 

into the shadows.

— Brené Brown (The Gifts of Imperfection)

Sharing at PaintPartyFriday

 

…but some are more equal…

Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer 

without making the animals themselves any richer 

– except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs. 

Watercolor

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL 

BUT SOME ANIMALS 

ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

-George Orwell, Animal Farm