I'm sure many of us will look back on 2020 and say 'What the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks was that all about?" Never has life been more surreal.
Since March 18, when we in Los Angeles County officially went into 'lockdown', each day has brought just another big, dangling question mark. Everyone wondering when we can get back to normal, hoping we can get back to normal, while news articles state this IS our new normal (gee, comforting).
And then there's the inevitable politicizing of the whole pandemic. The economy is tanking, small businesses are going belly up. families are in need, depression and anxiety are becoming real issues, not to mention the human toll. We're all in the same rickety, sinking boat and yet we still divide, divide, divide like a math problem gone wild.
My pet-sit business is shut down for the duration, a severe loss of income. As a newly-minted fine art exhibitionist, just when my ponies were beginning to gallop, they've been corralled by Covid. Like the many, I'm eating junk food for comfort, not exercising as much as I should, can't get a decent haircut and see no purpose putting effort into being beautiful. For what? For whom?
Which, in a roundabout way, is what inspired a quickie sketchpad session which produced 'Irrepressible Beauty' and the philosophy behind it.
Look at that brave little daisy in the image. Springing up through the cracked concrete as its birthright. It knows not, once it springs to life, what kind of life it will inherit. Yet it doesn't stop it from being beautiful. And that, right there, is the meaning of true beauty; it's spontaneous. It's irrepressible. It grows in the unlikeliest of places or thrives where it's planted. It doesn't need a reason to be beautiful, it just is, with total confidence. It is its own adornment. Its beauty doesn't come from things of this world, it is divine. And true beauty definitely doesn't worry about getting a haircut.
The surreal circumstances of 2020 have reminded me that in life there are storms. There is the unforeseeable. There will always be the potential for tragedy and disaster, There will always be risk and risk-taking. I can't let today's events destroy an integral part of who I am, to make me fearful of life and living. Because there are a few things I CAN control...how to feel from day to day. How to search for the beauty that awaits me the moment I get out of bed or step out the door, even if there hasn't been much outdoor steppin' lately.
So as you navigate through the murky, historically unprecedented waters of 2020, keep in mind this Irrepressible Beauty and let it inspire you as you wade out to meet new challenges. I'm a bit weary of that ill-advised sentiment "We Are In This Together", so instead, let me say, "We may be in this together, but it's up to each individual to find their way forward, and provide inspiration, as we can, to our fellow man."