I remember when I started this painting. My life had just been turned upside down and I was painting to pull myself away from the physical world. I wanted to escape. What came of it was a large painting of a turd. I even called it that. The colors were off. The spacing was weird. I stuck it in the closet.
A few months later I pulled it out and found some blossoms in it. Started pulling them through the painting and although they were there, they were sparse. I considered it done. Even hung it in some shows. But in the back of my head it was still a painting of a turd with some blossoms coming out. It didn't sell. Go figure. But that is because I wanted it to be done. I wanted the turd to be a blossom and I wanted to earn some income. I pulled it out again the other day because I am out of canvas and am recycling. I was going to just paint over it. But instead I saw the garden. Not just the blooms but the whole thing started coming forth. Bursting with life and color and expression this painting was born. It took two years and being stuffed away in a closet, thrown in front of a rejecting audience, and no more clean slates, to finally be seen.
Life.
I think the analogy is obvious today. But just know that whether you feel like a blooming turd, are stuffed in a closet, or have been hiding for two years, now is your time. Since the canvas can't be replaced, keep looking deeper. You are all of the beauty of a completed garden. Filled with life, and color, and smells, and activity. The sun feeds you and water nurishes you. The earth grounds you and you have value. You are not invisible nor are you someone to be discarded.
No... really, the most fragrant flowers start with poop for fertilizer. Just consider us fertilized.
Image above: "Paradise"