Writing With Joy!!!

A few years ago I bought an oil painting at a local consignment shop. It was $15, on the stretcher bars but unframed. It's a lovely depiction of pink and white striped tulips in a clear glass pitcher, and named 'Peppermint Candy'.

I know the name because the artist, Helen Evensen, wrote it on the back of the canvas. Beneath the title she also wrote, in pencil,

Tulips: Red, pink & peppermint stick!! Painted with much joy in May, 1999 by Helen Evensen, painter!!! Cedar, Michigan.

All those exclamations are Helen's. If you are of a creative bent you can't help loving her enthusiasm. She painted something, she was proud of it, she was proud and excited to BE a painter!!!

The tulips hang on the wall across from my desk so that, everyday, I am reminded to take joy in the process, as Helen did. Even the unfinished work--and there is one tulip that looks not quite complete to me--is a beautiful thing. A thing to take pride in.

The writing community nurtures each other, and that is a good thing, because we are all of us, a great deal of the time, working on something that's not quite done, never quite finished or perfect in our eyes, even once it's published. But it's still beautiful and deep down, even the most jaded among us must treasure those little joyful moments when we say to, and of ourselves, Author!!!