The Landscape of Life

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My Garden of Earthly Delights by Anne Copeland

Life is like a landscape, and it would be a boring life if it were all flat.  We can appreciate the flat because we know the hills and the valleys, just as we appreciate hot because we know cold, light because we know dark and happiness because we know depression.

Every day we can choose the colors we will paint the landscape of our lives, and we can also choose how much of the landscape we will paint.  Some may choose dull colors and stop the painting with a minimum of strokes laid down, and others may cover their landscapes with colors and texture and depth.  But in the end result, each of us paints a life landscape that is unlike anyone else’s.

Some will look at their palettes and canvases and feel they have been short-changed.  Still others look at the canvases and palettes and feel unsure what to paint.  And some use their palettes and canvases up very quickly, as if the paint might dry before they get done.  And still others take their time, contemplate every stroke, and make sure the design of life’s canvas is well established before even attempting to paint.  And finally, some put their brushes down and roll all over the canvas, embracing it, smearing the paint on the palette everywhere, even well off the canvases and onto the canvases of others.

And at the end of our lives, our friends and loved ones and perhaps others as well will come and we will get to have a one-woman or one-man show.  Everyone will come to examine the landscapes we have created.  Some of us will scarcely be remembered, for our landscapes might have lacked luster, while others will be remembered not only by this generation, but by the many generations to come because our paintings contained not only color and texture and depth, but something that touches our souls and leaves a permanent mark.  What kind of painter will you choose to be?

Anne Copeland