A Brave Participation

A Brave Participation

​"A Brave Participation" - watercolor and acrylic paint on paper, 24" x 18".   Available here and at Artfinder.

"It is still our destiny, our life, but the sense of satisfaction involved and the possibility of fulfilling its promise may depend upon a brave participation, a willingness to hazard ourselves in a difficult world, a certain form of wild generosity with our gifts; a familiarity with our own depth, our own discovered, surprising breadth and always, a long practiced and robust vulnerability equal to what any future may offer."

​- David Whyte, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words

Someone recently asked my how old I will be this year.

When the number popped into my head, I must admit to a certain overwhelming sense of panic.  Not about being older or any of those things (though I imagine I will feel some of those, too) but about the time.   Time, I think, is our most precious resource.  Yet we have no clue how much of it we have.   So each minute, every hour, that day and the one over there, too, are precious.  I'd like to hoard mine.  But that's the thing - you absolutely MUST spend it.  It's all in the how.

Whyte's words are a billboard of how I want to spend mine - in brave participation, wild generosity and robust vulnerability.  But I am also deeply human (flawed, awkward, sensitive, sometimes crabby and all the things humanness entails) and sometimes I am not so brave, not so generous, not so open.  I (gently) remind myself to do better. 

​So far, I wake up each day with another to spend.  Glorious, isn't it?

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About the art:  I took this hike photo and flipped it upside down to use as a jumping off point for a larger abstract.  Beginning with watercolor and watercolor crayons, then moving into acrylics.  Liberal use of water, squeegee, chopsticks and paper towel, along with varying brushes.  Resisting the urge to overly define.   

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