Rainy Days Make for Happy Flowers

 

This is the first painting I've completed in a series of botanical watercolors I plan on painting this summer. (Thanks to my mother for the fabulous suggestion).  My goal is 12.  But like anything, it's one step, one stroke, one leaf at a time. I hope to put prints of these on ETSY soon.  Perhaps tonight once the little one sleeps.

Today is a perfect day for painting -- a summer thunderstorm and showers.  My flowers love it!  Rainy days don't always seem pleasant, like rainy times in life. But, oh how important they are to the growth of a flower.

God's Funny Like That

"God always gives you what you would have asked for

 if you knew everything He knows." - Tim Keller

Thanksgiving

One act of thanksgiving made when things go wrong

is worth a thousand when things go well.

John of the Cross

Another disappointment has left me feeling more than a bit scared and uncertain.  I like security. I like knowing that everything will be okay - be it a big savings account, a good job, a good report, a promise... I don't think I'm any different than any human being on this planet.  So what do you do when things just aren't going your way, the safe, secure happy way?  Well, I can tell you one thing, I don't sit around being thankful.  It's hard to be thankful and easier to be fretful.  I worry and fret and worry and fret some more.  And quite frankly, I have found that that doesn't work AT ALL.  So I'm going to try to be thankful today.  I have SOOO much to be thankful for.  My guess is so do you.  Be thankful.  I'm trying it instead of being fearful.

Growing Slowly

This spring has been a real spring with lots of rainy and cool days.  I'm pretty impatient most of the time, but I'm enjoying that the summer is creeping in slower and not hitting us hard like it did last year.  It seemed like summer hit us in March with 100 degree days that lasted until October. I'm enjoying slower now. I see how fast a year has gone with Daisy. How fast she has grown in one, just one little year! Every morning we walk around the yard to see what is sprouting, what is growing taller and what is blooming.  Meanwhile, my little Daisy has been growing right under my nose, just like my garden. 

And, I wonder, am I still growing? 

Be not afraid of growing slowly,

be afraid of standing still.

                            - Chinese Proverb

I can't believe we will be celebrating Daisy's first birthday in less than a month.  And while it's a huge milestone for the our new little family, it is one for me personally as well.  I'm just starting to get a handle on all the changes I've had this first year and feeling, well... like it's going to be okay.  Some things in my life may never be back to the Amy I was before baby, but I'm finding my way toward a new normal.  For the past year I haven't painted much. I was surprised as to how much thought and energy it took.  When Daisy would go to sleep in the evening I discovered I just didn't have the energy to start a painting at 7 at night.  My best, most creative time is first thing in the morning and Daisy gets my best, most creative time now - especially since for many months there she was waking before me.  I'm so glad an artist friend told me that once you have a baby you won't really be able to paint much for about two years.  But then that baby will become your reason to paint. 

I'm still here.  I'm still an artist.  I'm like rose in winter.  I might look dead and shriveled up with no leaves, let alone any roses, but once the winter is past I will bloom again.