The Courage to See Clearly

The Courage to See Clearly

The Courage to See Clearly - acrylic on craft paper, 14.5 x 17.  Available here and at Artfinder.


This courage to see clearly what is before us, around us, and within us applies as well to the largest acceptance of all — that we will die. In accepting death, we can see more easily where we can live. In accepting that we have no control over the stream of life, we can see more easily the gestures we do have control of, which sages refer to as our chance to steer in the stream. In accepting that life is relentless in its rush of experience, we can see more easily where it is tender and wondrous. In facing the harsher ways of those we love, we can ask for authentic relationship and accept the hard work of how to get there.   - MARK NEPO

Lately, I've been stuck in the middle of the stream.

Stranded in a tiny, swirling, cloudy vortex of grief,  And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

Two friends passed away in recent weeks, and each was a brilliant well of creativity and kindness, vibrant and generous and sweet. And national events...that, too. A monkey pile of sadness and loss.

And so the inner world has become a miasma of reflecting, ruminating, regretting, celebrating and feeling - oh so much feeling.   All the way to the ends of my fingertips and edges of my eyeballs.  

Nepo's words give purpose here. They point to the BIG REVEAL that we all face when confronted with the loss of others - the inevitable ends of our own lives.  I was fighting the stream until a few days ago, when the overwhelm of exhaustion and feelings had me fed up with my own stew of sadness.  And I surrendered.  

We have no control over this stream -  who it takes, who it leaves behind.  But we can "steer in the stream", accepting, seeing more easily where we can live.  That's where the relief is.  Where the lives of those loved and lost become even more meaningful - they point us ​where we can live.  And so I gently steer myself to the tender and wondrous​ parts of the stream.  I think Heidi and Dana would approve.

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About the art: another piece on that lusciously leathery gesso'd craft paper.  Layers and layers of softly blended paint, added with brushes, sprayed, scraped away, then added again.  Embracing the random textures, lines and splatters that result.  Following her gaze to clearly seeing.