Summer in a word…

Well 2020 summer was certainly- different- than any other summer in my lifetime, I am guessing yours too?

In a word (at least from my vantage point) this summer was all about

- CHANGE -

Continuing to live with unknowns about how the pandemic will affect every area of life- jobs, school for my elementary kids, discipleship and worshiping with other Christians, trips to the grocery store, and well, you get it, you are living it too, with your own unique set of circumstances.

Challenging change.

This summer also pressed FOR change- to create a more just and equal society.

It is not as though that is new to this summer of course, but a collective conscience developed over the murders of Breonna Taylor, and witnessing the murder of George Floyd. These tragic losses, and too many others, forced our national (and hopefully personal) attention to the ways systemic racism pervades in policing, jails, schools, and the laws themselves. Forcing America to confront the continual remnants of painfully entrenched racism. I will keep listening & learning, keep praying, keep examining my own heart and thoughts, I will exercise my right to vote, doing whatever I can to ensure a more just society.

Hopeful change. Desperately needed change.

Then there is simply the daily change whether or not there is a pandemic or protests. I have 3 children, and they are all growing up, day by day, as kids do. My littlest one wasn’t walking at the beginning of this year, now he is running everywhere. I worried my kindergartener might not grasp reading well, now he is stunning me with what he reads & understands. My oldest lost teeth and the adult ones are coming in.

Time passes and it seems only marked by change.

Daily quiet change.

So what does all this have to do with photos of flowers, the beach and acrylic paint swirls?

Change is unavoidable, some pleasant, some painful- but mostly for me the challenge is simply the fear of not knowing which it is until it has arrived.

In nature, from where I witness it in sunny Florida, the continual movement of the ocean & the flowers life cycle- I observe beautiful moments crystallized- but it is only a snapshot of a larger ever changing picture.

The flowers, the ocean, they don’t fight change- they accept it and thrive. A lesson I certainly need.

The paintings I created are the same, snapshots of colorful acrylic pallets that are inspired by the hues and movement of the ocean. They are images of pallets I used to make other paintings- they only exist via the photograph I took of them. Constant change but appreciating what is in the moment.

Expanding and resting in a beautiful moment to keep as a memory, while embracing the idea of moving forward.

Precious change.