Blog

While mulling over what I have done this week to give me insight on what to write about, inchoate thoughts broke surface but disappeared before I was able to grasp them. Raking leaves. What can I say about that? What about hiking, doing dishes, or worrying about my trees? Is there a pattern here? Do these seemingly unconnected activities and meanderings serve a purpose, or are they simply detritus that needs disposal like the live oak leaf piles that are a fire hazard.

I have been working on a commission for a wonderful couple who live in Texas. They are very generous and treat me with the utmost respect. We have exchanged emails this week and I kidded that I was going to write a humorous blog about clients and commissions. In truth, most commissions have been positive experiences. It really is an honor for someone to ask me to paint a special picture for them. They are saying they believe in me and my work and their support allows me to continue to pursue my passion. It is also a reminder of how important it is to do good work, follow through with commitments, and support others in any way that I can.

Gandhi said that “Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.” We need each other. It is in relationship that this comes into focus. Getting back to hiking, often it is more fun and uplifting to share an experience with simpatico friends than to go it alone. If I don’t know that flower, my sister does. If I can’t remember the identifying features of a particular tree species, my brother-in-law can. This coming week I camp in the high country to hike and be with friends whose children and mine are friends. Now young adults, they are pursuing new adventures just as we are creating new ones. It is these interconnecting circles and experiences that give life such poignancy and joy. I just learned that one friend can’t make the camping trip because her son was in an accident and he needs her help. Difficult as that is, everyone will do their best to help, in whatever capacity is possible for them.

Last night I had a phone conversation with my sister. I was very sad about the ponderosa pines that are expiring from drought and pine beetle on our property and California in general. Although she did not solve the drought or beetle problem, just talking to her made me feel a lot better.

I think that the things of the everyday are not detritus. They are a framework that allows the workings of a human soul to go about its' business under the surface, and much is done in relationship, like the play groups we had while our children grew up together.

 “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” Helen Keller