Paint A Picture...

Today's POD prompt is "hand painted"  I posted a picture of a painting that I've used for prompts before. It's one of my favorite things. 

The basics of the story are that I took a photograph, a friend saw the photo and painted it, then she gave me the painting. So I have a painting of my photograph. 

But it's more than that. 

The photograph of a spectacular sunrise was taken out of a plane window as I left Albuquerque. Albuquerque gets the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets. The sky turns all sorts of vivid colors. The light reflects off of the mountains and they turn different colors. The Sandias and the Manzanos. Watermelons and Apples. Their names match their colors (though that's not actually why they were named that way, just a happy coincidence). 

It happened to be a moment in time where I consciously thought, "Take the picture because it's important to remember."

What is important to remember?

Well, that no matter how much life might suck at that moment, it goes on. The sun comes up. The day begins again. And if you are lucky you will still find some beauty. 

And, let me tell you, right then life sucked. I was at a crossroad. The road behind me was "everything that came before" and the road ahead was two choices and I wasn't sure at that point what choice I was going to make. Neither road looked particularly appealing. But I knew I was going to have to keep moving forward. And I knew that I was going to be deep in the suck for awhile. 

But that didn't change anything. 

The sun comes up. The day begins again. The world does not stop just because you need a breather. 

And if you are lucky there is still beauty.

So I took the shot. 

And it was spectacular. I posted it to Facebook. It became the wallpaper on my phone for a few years. 

And life did go on. I made a choice. Then made a few others. The suckage eventually eased.

A couple of years later Skippy was staying with Matt and Stephanie in Canada and they drove down to Seattle while Brent, Katie and I drove up to visit with them and with another friend, Janine, who lives in the Seattle area. When we got there Stephanie gave me the painting. 

I had no idea she was painting it, complete surprise. And I was blown away at how gorgeous it is. I've mentioned before that part of what amazes me with her art is that she's color blind. She's made a few pieces for me, and a lot of other pieces I've seen in her exhibits, and her color work is amazing. She does it all based on math. Don't ask me how, neither math nor colors are my area, but she does it and it works and it's amazing. 

The painting.

Not quite the photo.

That is the picture that I took with my camera. The version I took with my phone was the one that she based the painting on. I had taken the shot with my phone then dug my camera out to get it as well. Because I really wanted that shot. It's amazing to think the phone version was better because it was 14 years ago and cameras on phones weren't spectacular just yet, but the phone picked up the details of the mountains that the camera didn't. 

She had no idea how important that photograph was to me. What it meant to me to take it and have it. She also didn't know that when Facebook was doing an update they deleted the album that photo was in. And my phone files had corrupted so I lost the copy on my phone. 

And then I had a painting of that photo.

Because the world went on. 

But not only did it go on it gave me something else. Not just the painting, but the reminder that when I took that photograph, when I consciously said, look for the beauty, and then posted it, that beauty then inspired someone else. She saw the beauty in that photograph and created a piece of art out of it. She took that raw pain and shaped it into a wonderful gift. Never even realizing exactly what she was doing, except being inspired by a spot of beauty in a photograph. 

Because life goes on. The day begins again. If you are lucky you will find some beauty. And if you are luckier still you will also spread that beauty to others. 

Enjoy the sunrises and sunsets and the beauty around you. Even when you are deep in the suck.