Moving Past Fears

I, not unlike a lot of people I think, were taught to approach life from a place of fear and worry about all the bad things that might happen. Or conversely, to be convinced of all the good things that can't or won't happen. It's a negative mindset of coming at life from a place of "lack" and not feeling capable or confident in oneself and not having faith or trust in the future.

For me this quote from Georgia O'Keefe attacks that place of lack so swiftly and adeptly. She acknowledges her fear and says, "Yes, I have it" (she even goes further to call her fear "terror") but then she continues on to say, "But it doesn't rule me." She says she knows is capable of moving past the fears and she does that in order to do everything she set out to do.

I strive to follow Georgia's example -- to have fears and worries but to separate them from confidence in my capabilities and actions I take toward dreams.

Gold versus Gray

I have loved this painting ever since I first saw it on a school field trip to the Cleveland Art Museum many years ago. I love the ominous drama of the dark clouds combined with the sturdy and stable sustenance of the wheat fields.

I only discovered, last year when I was at the art museum once more and I took the time to read the caption, that the painting (called "Gray and Gold" by John Rogers Cox who was an American painter) was painted at the beginning of World War II and could be interpreted to represent the crossroads the U.S. faced when considering entering into the war.

I can often feel this sense of looming danger. That's when my fears are stepping forward during times of change and unknown futures.

But I can choose to focus on the impending storm clouds or I can choose to feel comfort from the plentiful wheat. Focussing on the wheat won't make the clouds go away, I know, but it's a more stable grounding for me than the ever-changing sky. When the clouds have passed, the wheat fields, in some variation and most likely not without trauma, will still be there. Or, at the very least, the land for more wheat fields to be planted will still be there.

I have recently done some traveling to England and was taken in by a similar scene. I do *not* attempt to replace or recreate the original painting but it feels good for me that I have made my own photographic version of a painting that has quietly captured my spirit for many years: