Time & Patience— Coming to the West End Gallery
The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
I struggled with the title for this new painting, a 10″ x 20″ piece on aluminum panel, that is part of my upcoming solo show at the West End Gallery that opens on Friday, July 22. Though it is a simple sparse composition, there is a lot to be gleaned from it.
I am drawn to its soothing calmness and sense of stillness. At first, I thought it had the feel of waiting but it doesn’t. Those crows in that tree aren’t waiting for anything, aren’t anxious for answers or solutions. They are just patiently being crows, knowing that the sun will rise, the clouds will pass, and the world will turn as it always has before. They will fly when the need to move, seek food when they are hungry and drink when thirsty.
They are the epitome of time and patience.
There’s a lot to be said for setting aside anticipation and expectation, to just let the world turn. It will often eventually turn to you. And when it doesn’t, don’t fret. Be patient and take in the colors of the sky, the bend of the path, and the rise of the distant hills. Let the sun warm you and feel the dirt beneath your feet.
The world is still turning…
Redtree Times 