On A Clear Day

People find their way – they usually do.

I have faith in the human spirit, or the struggle for good in all of us. Even when we’re down we are not out – we come back fighting.

Today I watched as a small group of apparently injured US soldiers were wheeled by me. I’m guessing they were out on a short excursion from the near by Naval hospital.

The scene can’t be more striking - the contrast so clear – I was taking my lunch break enjoying the beautiful San Diego sun and the serene landscape that only Balboa Park can offer – and here is a solider being wheeled by me with his lower leg missing with a compression stocking pulled up around the part that was left. No doubt blown off in a land mine in the Middle East (I imagined a scene like the ones in the movie The Hurt Locker). He looked to be in good spirits as he and the person wheeling him around were exchanging banter and laughing.

As I looked at that I was overwhelmed with emotion and before long I found my eyes full of tears. I gulped down the lump in my throat as my mind was filled with gratitude for this young man’s sacrifice. We get disconnected don’t we? The war is in another world far from us. I wanted to run up and thank him but was caught in a pensive moment…I watched the group grow smaller in the distance fading into the beauty of the park.

How…how does one overcome set backs so life changing…so irreversible?

I had been experiencing a few weeks of stress due to my schedule and commitments but there I sat – embarrassed by my complaints in comparison. I found my stress lift as I took courage from this sight. I think it was God’s way of giving me a poetic object lesion.

(Original 2008 Painting titled: “On A Clear Day – Red Forever” and a thought I wrote to go with it: 

Should I buy the gold or the silver...

This Style looks good on me...

I need the latest...

Did you hear who won the grammy...

I gotta have that car... 

  

Peace and calm where you are

Destruction where you aren't

Worlds apart

Fear and civil unrest

Unless you've been there

It's hard to imagine 

[Pray for evil to cease and peace to prevail] 

Art In Chaos

Art can be found in the "ordinary" life around us.

I once had a professor greet our morning "Philosophy of the Arts" class with excitement about the “snow tunnels” out in the snow covered university grounds. She was disturbed when she mentioned it to her colleagues who did not return her enthusiasm. She ordered us out of the classroom to go explore the beauty in nature up close.

This was an object lesson for me to wake up, open my eyes and "really see" life around me - even more, see the beauty that is. There is beauty all around us, in nature, in our relationships, even beautiful composition can be found in a messy room or a pile of papers or even trash at a dump.  

   

I'm intrigued by the thought that God can find in our own messy imperfect lives beauty that no one sees or notices. He doesn’t see us as we are, but as we can become - in all of our unrealized potential. In our mess there is beauty waiting to be unveiled. A voice speaks to us or maybe a thought nudges us to look at what is there. If we are willing to be honest we may find the beauty in the mess.

(original painting - acrylic on canvas)