Overcoming - 36 x 24" Original Oil Painting

36 x 24 x 1.5 inches, Oil on Canvas, unframed but ready to hang.

In the season that we lived in California and I was ankle deep in newborns and breastfeeding and diapers and toddlers climbing all over me, I struggled.

There was not enough coffee and dry shampoo to get me through the day. Not enough naps to relieve being woken up endlessly at night to feed a crying baby with my own body, which no longer felt like it belonged to me.

And in all those wearying hours, in the literal drought of my life my tears were the only rain that fell.

Exhaustion.
Frustration.
Desperation.

They plagued me.

And it was in those fleeting moments with tear-blurred eyes and a weary body that I prayed what felt like the deepest, soul-groaning prayers of my life.

I constantly was asking God what to make of this endless season where I felt like I was withering on the vine... and a still, small whisper filled my heart with these simple words:

✨Be grateful.
✨Be gentle.
✨Be generous.

And so, one day at a time I allowed those words to echo into the recesses of my mind. To come over me like a comforting blanket; the warmth of the voice of a familiar friend.

And slowly tiny, green growth emerged from cracks in an arid landscape.

Eventually, our scenery changed and I found myself in the proverbial back yard of the place where I grew up. Where it rains. Where the wind blows. Where the thunder rattles the windows. Where new life emerges expectantly and with great abundance.

And it is in the storm the practice of being grateful for all things, gentle in what I say and do, and generous with all that I have that grounds me to life-changing hope.

Overcoming.

Special thanks to storm chaser and friend, Adam Jackson, for allowing me to use his photograph for inspiration for this painting.

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