Real Painting--Bread of Life

I came across one of my "Real Paintings" when we were moving some of our furniture from storage. I'd almost forgotten how much I loved it until I saw it again. Usually you all see the painting I do on bread. So I thought I'd share this piece here on the blog. It's not food...but ya know what? It's still my soul. Sunday is that day I share a little of my soul. Enjoy.

At one point, painting this picture I remember thinking, "I don't want this picture to end. I want it to go on forever and ever. I wish it could trail off the canvas and into eternity." So I laced the leaves around the sides of the canvas and just sat back wishing I could do more. It was a quiet afternoon in late July. The only reason I remember that is because it was a day my kids had gone for a solid 8 hour block. Mom's don't get that often when the little ones are super small. It had been a long week.

 Now, several years later I looked at this painting again in a new light.  I grew so much when I painted this. At the time I didn't have a garden so I didn't literally grow things...but I was creating something spiritually. I was giving my creative mind some solid form. I was expressing the deep yearnings of my soul to create depth and light. I wanted to see textures and shapes and I wanted it all pure on white...I wanted to take something ordinary and make it beautiful.  

It also made me wonder why I ever put it away in storage instead of on my wall.  Isn't life like that at times?

Why do we as humans sometimes start something and then end up not keeping that thing, whatever it may be, near and dear to our hearts? Especially if the thing we started brought us great joy and personal satisfaction? I'm not sure. All I know is that today...I'm taking it out and hanging it up.  I'm not saying I will always have time to paint on canvas...but I'm remembering that at one time in my life, there was hours of silence. I'm remember that those days will come all too quickly when that isn't the "exception" but the "rule"... and that the times I have now are just as precious as the bright white. The depth, the texture, the color and the shapes...all have a place on the canvas. My life, imperfect as it is doesn't need to be more...it just needs to be taken  out and appreciated now and then for what it really is. Real Life. I want it to run over the edges today. I want it to go on forever...but it won't. It will change. 

I'm reminded to be a Pioneer now, as my Ancestors were before me. I'm reminded to not be satisfied with one blank canvas but to touch every life I can wherever I can...for as long as I can.

“Truly the Lord encourages us to walk in faith to the edge of the light and beyond—into the unknown,” M. Russel Ballard.


There it is. Light up the darkness.