🎶 Winds in the east, a mist coming in, like something is brewing and about to begin. 🎶
I’m sitting in my sunroom, wind rattling the gutters, anticipating this weekend’s impending nor’easter, and I can’t help but feel it…
The power of change.
That refrain from Mary Poppins—one of my favorite Disney movies!—is swirling in my head, and rightly so. Last week, we saw positive changes in our democracy for the first time in what feels like forever (a record number of women will serve in Congress!), and I have so much gratitude for all who’ve worked so hard to make it happen.
I’m feeling hopeful; alive. In fact, at the opening of Seeing: Celebrating light and water, my show with Jane Turner at the Wood Library Gallery in Canandaigua on Saturday, a friend commented to me: “It’s so good to see you glowing.”
I thought, wow, what a compliment. And the truth is, it’s been hard earned.
I started off this year as I always do, choosing a word and setting an intention. My word: Breakthrough. I was finally retired from design work and eager to fill my calendar with shows and competitions, filling the gaps with as much painting as I could.
My body had other plans, of course, and I was reminded to be careful what I wish for: I asked for a breakthrough, and I got bulging discs that made it feel like my spine was splintering.
I can say that with a smile now, because the slowing down it forced taught me to stay awake to every sign and nudge along the way. And it handed me something I didn’t expect: with less commitments and competitions, I’m free to paint what I want, the way I paint it.
So as I stood surrounded by friends, family, and lovers of art at the gallery on Saturday, I basked in the glow of community, of creativity, and of gratitude for every person I’ve learned from along the way. Every painting in the show was inspired by water, land, and sky, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect, opening just days after the blue wave carried us back into hope and light.
Today, though, I keep thinking about my friend’s comment. My first instinct was to deflect it. Isn’t it bragging to say out loud that I feel good? But the more I think about it, the more obvious it becomes that there’s a difference between bragging and sharing goodness. One is all about me. The other is all about what’s possible, and lifts others up along the way.
That’s what Saturday felt like, and it’s what this past week has felt like: people in every corner of the country deciding to show up and lift each other up… and it working.
So I’m still here in my sunroom, the gutters still rattling, the shift from autumn to winter steadily happening. I used to brace for weather like this. Today I’m watching it arrive, wide awake, glowing, and ready for whatever it brings.
P.S. The show at Wood Library is open until December 5th… I hope you’ll stop to see it!