Abundance, 2020, oil on canvas, 61 x 91.4 cm, 24 x 36 in, $865.

This post has a happy ending, I promise, so please stay with me…

THE PANDEMIC’S DROUGHT OF PLENTY

We are all feeling this pandemic, each in our own way.

My thought patterns can easily drift toward scarcity if I’m not careful. That this pandemic and its constraints mean lack, a drought of options, of security, of excitement, of joy. That we are deprived of what we need to thrive and live fully.

When I think this way, I am looking for abundance defined by my expectations of external reality, rather than transcending those perceptions to see the bounty around me and within.

ABUNDANCE IS ALWAYS HERE

To soothe these worries, I have focused my creative efforts during 2020 on always-bountiful Nature. The enormous variety of life in our natural world illustrates that the driving energy behind this show we call life is creative and abundant. Abundance is a key characteristic of life. But do we, do I, recognize it, appreciate it?

CHOOSING HOPE

A recent entertaining read, The Murder Stone by Louise Penny, addressed the theme Paradise Lost. We live in heaven or hell, depending upon how we choose to see it. Am I deprived of living fully, of security, by this virus, or am I blessed, today, to be safe, and together with loved ones, with an abundance of time, and with books, paint, movies and music? This quiet time just may be Paradise, and if I don’t pay attention, I won’t even recognize it.

So with these paintings, Abundance (shown at the top of the post) and Hello, Gorgeous III, along with additional almost-ready florals, I choose hope. I choose to consciously look for and find gorgeous abundance, even in 2020. To love and appreciate. In our natural world, in creativity, in the human spirit, in health. We must remind ourselves of the good that is all around us. And stay connected to that.

Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.

Wayne Dyer