30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 22

"Pouring Water on Ancient Faces" - mixed media on 300 lb watercolor paper,  10" x 22".  Ready to frame.  Available at Artfinder.

Inigo: Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. Buttercup is marry Humperdinck in little less than half an hour, so all we have to do is get in, break up the wedding, steal the princess, make our escape, after I kill Count Rugen.
Westley: That doesn't leave much time for dilly-dallying.
                 from The Princess Bride

Not much time for dilly-dallying!  Do you have days like this?  Where one hundred and fifty-four things are happening simultaneously on your schedule, and somehow you are just going to have to MAKE IT WORK (thanks, Tim Gunn!) but at that moment it seems nearly impossible?  Of course you do.

The scene in our house yesterday:  hubby working at one end with a pile up of banking deadlines, me at the other end with a dozen art deadlines.  Cleaners furiously trying to clean even as contractors are energetically tearing out drywall and remediating mold damage (yes, you heard it, mold).  And Pongo, ever vigilantly making sure everyone knows he is really willing to help them, big old nose in the middle of whatever they are doing.  Everyone's phone is ringing and pinging, equipment is grinding and whooshing and swooshing, dust is flying and being swept up and bag after bag of nastiness is being hauled out the front door.  Thank goodness I was feeling a wee bit better and didn't need peace and quiet.

This painting, and its title, inspired by the next chapter in Mark Nepo's book, The One Life We're Given.  In it he  describes beached whales and herculean efforts to save them.  This quote: ..when we're too exhausted to uphold our differences, there's room enough for everyone.  And when we find each other stranded, we must interrupt our lives to return each other to the deep.  As I penned a letter of encouragement to the students of Stoneman Douglas High School yesterday, this quote gave me hope that we could interrupt our lives and cross divides as a nation for these (and all other) children.   There is room enough for everyone.