Not bad for a weekend

The view from my IPhone
The weekend promised to be beautiful. Hot. Sunny. A perfect August weekend to get out and enjoy our short summer season. I had a plan but I was still feeling the affects of this jaw/tooth pain, and realized I wasn't up to much of anything but taking it easy. But, the pain-killers give me windows of 'almost normal' so I decided to capitalize on the energy I had and treat myself to a weekend of painting.

Friday night, Ellie and I went for our walk and I captured photos of trees and the view to paint.

Saturday morning, I hauled out my paints, covered the dining room table in plastic, set up my 'studio' and contemplated where to begin.

"You know you've been wanting to paint the kitchen for almost three years," that voice in my head whispered. (We moved into this house in November 2008 and painting the kitchen was one of the first things I intended to do -- and then we thought of renovating and the project was postponed...)

I contemplated painting the kitchen versus painting a tree. A tree gives me something beautiful to hang on the walls -- but the walls are pretty full of other paintings. The kitchen gives me something beautiful for everyone to enjoy. And, both are meditative processes.

I eyed the paints and palettes and canvas ready to receive the gift of colour. I eyed the white walls of the kitchen, ready to receive the gift of a new look.

I decided to paint the kitchen.

And I'm glad I did. Not only did the kitchen receive a much needed and desired coat of paint, I created a 'gallery space' for some of my paintings that comes alive with the golden colour of the walls.

It was a quiet weekend filled with the contemplative process of painting. Where I could have laid around, watching too many movies and feeling sorry for myself, I spent my time breathing deeply in to the into the quiet, my arm moving rhythmically up and down as I swept golden yellow colour onto my kitchen walls.

And when I was finished, I pasted on the wall art I bought a year ago while C.C. and I were visiting friends on a lake in Ontario -- Life is delicious. You can't see them in the photo, but there are four silver dragon flies in the air above the L. They make me smile. :)

My jaw still hurts but I managed to create a room of colourful light and in the process I feel like I accomplished something. And in the process, managed to forget to feel sorry for myself throughout the weekend!

Not bad for a weekend's work. Because, no matter how you look at it, Life is delicious.