You would have thought I had asked who had stolen the Mona Lisa, by the explosive storms that raged, when I asked a simple, seemingly benign question. Noise pollution – filled with lies, accusations, and deceit – cluttered the air.
Nothing of any significance had been stolen. Nothing. Nothing!
These attacks were about an empty box in the recycling bag that was removed by a mysterious individual, by the name of “I didn’t do it.”
No one wanted to take responsibility. And nearly everyone was eager to blame someone, anyone but themselves. One desperate party, the only innocent one in the lot, who didn’t want a particular snack to go away spun an elaborate tale in sheer desperation to keep the sweet candy from ‘disappearing.’
Today’s an important deadline day for my work, and I wasn’t counting on expending my energy on putting up with stupid storms of no significance. I had intense frustration I wanted to release without acting out or being counterproductive.
Writing a dark poem didn’t count.
Banging my head on a wall wouldn’t help.
So, I painted, instead. I decided I would experiment with a couple of products that were new to me:
- a piece of watercolor paper an art store owner had given me to try out – it’s 50% cotton pulp and 50% henna.
- a watercolor brush pen set that was given to me as a gift.
Working with new products comes with uncertainty and demands more focus than usual.
Lily Chang © 2018
Painting offered me quiet and the opportunity to think past this morning’s craziness and pray for others. And the end result was good.
WAM - Writing and Art in the Making 