Your Life Canvas

When Cathy posted her photo of the beautiful sunrise she caught this week, it made me think of an idea I created a couple of years ago: painting your life's canvas.

I was sitting in the church. A funeral for a friend who lost her long, 15 year battle with cancer. The church was packed with people. It was a tough funeral to attend. While listening to the pastor, I looked around the room and thought, "Karen left a swipe of color on every life in here, and her color will never be duplicated on anyone's canvas."

And that's how the idea started. I imagine a living canvas. Everyone who touches our life has their own color, their personal hue that is left on our canvas. Some people are a part of our life and leave large sweeping strokes of color. Others wash over our canvas boldly. There are friends who splash, splatter, and swish. There are people we meet on our life path that may leave only one streak of their color, but even one streak adds to the overall picture. Our canvas continues to grow, making room for as many colors as we're lucky enough to encounter.

I want to paint my life. In my mind's eye, I can see how the painting would look. I can think of a person, and a color will swirl and form in my head. The way I'd add it to my painting would be as individualized as each person who is a part, or has been a part, of my life. Some people, I'd use a feather to brush fleeting strokes of color. Some would be a watery, translucent color, almost undetectable to another viewer, but to me, I'd know what it represented on my life masterpiece. Of course, there would be colors that stood out above all others, large, bold, comforting, rich in depth.

I feel blessed that my canvas is large and growing. I know the colors of my people. My painting is a watercolor of beautiful, rich hues. There are some small brush marks that I would not want to have missing from the large backdrop. There are some powerfully strong swipes from a large brush of love, guidance, and happy times. My canvas grows. A part of it might look like this..........