Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
The “Your children” story-painting was inspired by Khalil Gibran’s wisdom, and I painted it during the Tracy Verdugo Story Painting course. A truth I learned in my twenties, “yes, I can be an independant adult!” came back to bite me when my own children freed themselves.
For a young adult, Gibran’s words about children sound line a cry of freedom.
How different, in my later years, to see my two deeply loved children, stepping off independently into their lives.
Inevitably, during the only time we were together in 2020, in early September in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales, I snapped a photo of them walking away. Of course, they also remind me of the Start-Rite kids, as they did in their actual childhoods (I have included a photo of them when little below).
Painting progress
“Your Children” began in a very loose way. I started with scribbles and splashes to indicate the drystone walls on each side of the footpath. I placed torn bits of newspaper on the left for the stones (this is also collage!).
Bright green seemed right for a gorgeous late summer day on the sides of a hill where sheep graze and there has been plenty of rain. It was a truly lovely walk, in the company of four beloved people.
When they were younger
They were very sweet children, as are all of our children, however difficult family life can be at times. I have lots of lovely memories. This one came from walking in the woods of the Harz mountains in Germany. I believe this place gave birth to many of the tales gathered by the Bothers Grimm. So it is a place of stories.
There is another portrait of one of my kids in Dressing for Halloween.
