I shared the story of how I finally framed Amaey’s painting acquired from Kids & Art fundraiser awhile ago. I hadn’t posted the actual final framed painting because my limited photography skill does not seem to capture what I see – what is it that I see that the everyday camera does not capture? It’s a soft shroud of light, there’s sort of what you might call an aura about this painting. The frame I found was wood with golden wash of paint … simple, elegant and … golden to bring out the colors of the painting:
See what I mean – whenever I hold the camera in front where it hangs, there’s always a reflection … here you see the white dotted lights I have no idea where they came from … so I took it down to see how I may take a better photo of it and here comes my helper …woof, woof.
It hangs in a room with much foot traffic, as it is a place of gathering. Thus, I am constantly reminded of this precious gift we are given. Quite central, it comes into my view often. How lucky we are to be in this particular “home”, how lucky we are for our souls are abiding within us, our eternal home. I live with gratitude, that we all live under the sun and the moon, the rays of light that does not dispel the darkness, but sometimes shines onto the darker shadowy corners and deeper pits hidden under the layers – light and darkness; happiness and grief … yes, joy and sorrow; health and disease; laughter and tears, or is it anger, sweet and bitter – polar opposites and all the subtle range in-between that are the undeniable human experiences. Through acceptance, learning to know that opposites are actually complementary and finding to calibrate that homeostasis in the middle.
This unpretentious painting sends a powerful message to me. It’s pure; it’s innocent and honest like children are. Thank you for leaving behind such beauty Amaey, the brave soul who faced death squarely so early in life with …hope and faith. I know you didn’t even think in such terms when engaged and focused in doing what you loved doing – all the while there might have been dread, fear, sadness … a longing for normalcy by “going home”. Just painting, creating, expressing in the moment; never thinking past that. Living in the present.
More often than not, we learn our profound teachings of resilience from our youngest teachers.
