Thrive

Thrive

A dear, longtime friend of mine came to visit with me this week. We are both going through a rough patch it seems, though our situations are very different from one another. She told me a story of how she’s been going on walks in her neighborhood where there’s a swath of overgrown weeds along the hard-to-find path. This overgrown area felt to her like a picture of her life right now: everything out of control, none of it making sense or seeming to have any order. One day when she was particularly distressed, she saw a lone flower-weed growing in the weedy chaos. It seemed to be there just for her, a reminder from her Father that He is there in the midst of the bedlam, and that beauty can be found even here. She picked the lone flower taking it home to put in a vase.

The next day on her walk, totally engrossed in her thoughts of the difficulty she is enduring, there it was again! Another lone flower, different from the one the day before. Amazed and touched by this, she picked it again, to take home to her vase so she could have evidence all day long of God’s faithfulness to her.

This has continued to happen each day this week. Simple flowers growing in the midst of chaos, lovely reminders of God’s presence with her.

It made me think of all the beautiful flower arrangements I’ve been receiving over the last 6 weeks. They came while I was in the hospital, they came to me at home. Profusions of color and growth to cheer me and give me hope. They certainly have done so!! And I’ve been painting them, drawing them, trying different methods, but always with watercolor. No pressure to perform, just recording the beauties that have been sent to make recuperating from surgery a little less painful.

I’m going to share with you, one each day, these floral works here on Drawn2Life. A few of them I will offer for sale in my Etsy Shop, in case you’d like to “pick” that bouquet for your very own. But if you don’t, my hope is that as you view them, you might be encouraged and given a glimmer of hope, as I have, for whatever situation you find yourself in.

The above bouquet was not sent to me, but rather gathered by my oldest daughter from our own back yard in one of the weeks following surgery. I had this lovely blue Mason jar into which we arranged the Shasta Daisies, Black-Eyed Susans and various other pretties I don’t know the  name of. The background of this painting/drawing did not work for me at all. So I went back into it with acrylics and some collage. It’s always fun to switch up the materials you typically work with.

**The older I get and the more “rough patches” I go through, I’m increasingly convinced that there are little beauties somewhere along the path. I am certain this is no coincidence. They are lovingly given by friends, family and by God himself to lead us along, to cheer us, to give us encouragement to not give up, so that instead of merely enduring, we might truly THRIVE.

 

0 thoughts on “Thrive

    • jenpedwards says:

      Hi Sandra! So glad to hear from you. This surgery was a follow up to what I had a year or so ago. It was major stuff and the recuperation is taking longer than I anticipated. My surgeon says this is how it is and that I’m doing well, for being 6 weeks out. Thanks for stopping by!

  1. freebirdsings/Timaree says:

    I wasn’t paying attention! Just sitting back waiting for emails to corm through for the knitter lay blog. I’m glad you gave the heads up you’ve been busy on this blog too as this is just lovely both the story and the painting. You mixed the media very well!

Leave a Reply to Sandra Torguson Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *