Lookin' Out My Back Door

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I never know from whence to expect inspiration. It usually shows up when I least expect it and never when I try too hard to find it.

Several months ago, I began painting a small mural over the doors of my sunroom. I knew basically what I wanted to paint, but only had "seen" it in my head. Hesitantly, I began. I got out the paints and the brushes and put the first stroke of a firecracker plant on the wall. All was well. The irises were very pretty, and the butterfly was beautiful. Now what? Hmmm. I moved to the other end of the mural space and painted a portion of a tree for an owl to sit in. I was satisfied with that section, too. This left me with a huge gap between the small plants and the tree.

I knew I wanted a pond in the painting, and more trees and grass- lots of peaceful, open space. I made a couple of attempts at the pond and ended up getting out the white paint and "erasing" the middle section completely. I just couldn't get the perspective right. I was stymied. I sought inspiration at every turn. I looked way too hard. Then one day I was driving down the highway and passed a farm I had seen many times before. However, this time the scene screamed at me to stop and take a close look. There was the inspiration to finish my mural, complete with a pond, trees and lots of grassy open space. I took several photos from different angles and went home happy. I have since made great progress and have the bulk of the painting blocked in. There are still lots of details to add, but I'm getting there because of inspiration knocking when I least expected it.

So it has been with my article this month. I intended to write about our family's trek to Oklahoma to a beautiful natural setting for our annual family reunion. I was going to get out and do some nature journaling and weave together a story of family and nature. As fate would have it, I came down with a nasty cold just before we left, and felt terrible the whole time we were there. So, the time I would have spent journaling was spent on the couch, resting and sneezing. I have since recovered from the cold, and inspiration strikes again- right in my own backyard.

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