Convoluted. Complicated. Complex. Confusing. Cumbersome.

Everything but easy.

That is how this year so far has played out.

As soon as I get one situation under control with my mother, three more pop up to take its place. It has been disheartening and oh, so difficult and my brain and spirit are feeling the effects of all of the trauma.

My time at the easel has been squeezed in wherever I could get it. It has been sporadic, and the days of uninterrupted time to concentrate and plan and paint are so 2021. 2022 has been a lesson in a whole new way to work. I no longer manage my time, time manages me. And I am looking for the silver lining.

Or at least a moment or two of peace.

While I was painting this salt water creek I was thinking of the words I have heard my mother say so often, “aren’t we so lucky to live here?”. I always laughed and said, “yes, we are”. Oh, how right she was. When everything else is out of control, there is still that.

There is so much to love in the landscape that surrounds us. That soft light of late afternoon on the marsh grass. The ebb and flow of the tide. Always dependable and always constant. That salty breeze blowing over it all, dancing over the grass, swaying the moss in the trees and rippling the water.

Uncomplicated. Untroubled. Unburdensome. Unworried.

There is always a sweet spot.

I can’t find it in the majority of the things that are going on in my life right now. But I can find it in the constancy of the tide. The charm of a little salt water creek. The beauty of the light in the sky. The gracefulness of the marsh grass. And my time at the easel.