The Search

I am putting the finishing strokes on a new painting I will call "The Search."  It pictures a man in the desert, walking forward into an expanse of blowing sand.  The sunlight is intense and coming from his right side, yet there are streaks of light seemingly coming from heaven, light that falls upon his head. I hadn't planned those serendipity streaks.  They came about because I had left the painting to dry, and when I returned to it in the early afternoon, sunlight from a west window was beaming precisely across the top of the composition onto the top of the traveler's head, so I carefully lifted the paint with clear water to reveal the paper beneath, and voila! The traveler was illuminated in his journey.

I don't know who he is.  He was inspired by a photo in Sunday's Cleveland Plain Dealer, a picture submitted by James and Madeline Hayes of Brecksville, Ohio.  The photo captured my attention because of the rich blue of his long robes against the ochre sand and also because of the solitude it portrayed, the man alone sans a dozen or so footprints deep in the sand.  His aloneness intrigued me, yet he looks resolute, determined and forging ahead despite the confusing environment in which he struggles.  Perhaps he knows exactly where he is going, and that is why his steps are sure and steady.

I never seem to know exactly where I am going.  My steps are not sure, not steady at all, except for one thing, and that is that I put my life in the hands of the One who guides me, the Lord.  I know if I just keep trudging onward, He will keep me on the right path, even if I do not recognize that path in the deep and moving sand.

Anyway, hope can be a true as the cobalt blue of the my painted traveler, and when the painting is complete, I will show it to you.  Till then, keep trudging!  And may God Bless You... Through the Cottage Door.