Well, I don’t know whether you think this latest painting is at all romantic…  but here’s what happened when I sat down to make my partner Holly an anniversary gift to celebrate our four years together (yay!)

Clearly, I’m not in charge of what happens when I paint!    Thankfully, Hol loves the image, and so do I…  It speaks to us both of just how bone-deep our stories go, individually and together.  She’s had quite the life journey, my dear one, with lots of glories and plenty of struggles– including these past two or three years working with adrenal fatigue illness.  (More struggle than glory there.  Not fun.)  But here’s the romance:  I’m in love with how Hol lives all of her experience, how thoroughly she wrestles with and (eventually) welcomes and heals what comes her way, and how richly she weaves her life stories into compassion and truth.  I want to live that deeply and welcome my core life too.

So what are your marrow stories, and mine– the really real, central parts at the core of us?  Which of them wants to be known more fully in our own minds and hearts?  Which of our stories might inspire or encourage others if the time were right for the telling?

See more image details: Marrow Story.  Art Print available.

My paintings always raise more questions than give answers, I’ve noticed….  I also can’t help but remember another layered, question-filled painting from 2003, Listen to My Bones.  Guess the metaphor needed a revisit after a dozen years!  (Wow, already?!)

View 1 – top layer

Bless us all– deep into our bones.