When I tell you ideas for these paintings started flowing like water breaking through a dam and I was SO proud of myself. A new-to-me color scheme!? Look at me doing something innovative. Differently shaped canvas? Yes, exactly what will help this piece be unique— not just to my office, but maybe even compared to what anyone else has done.

SO I’m sure you can picture my shocked response as I stared at the oval canvas covered in pastel colors… How did I not realized I was imagining an EASTER EGG?!

Pictured here: A swatch of lavender, blue-ish, green, yellow pastel-ish colors.

After trying to fix this, giving up and giving in, then considering painting over it, I remembered that it’s better to let the canvas sit and come back tomorrow. And in between those two days, I remembered a poem I wrote as I was preparing to move to Chicago.

Pictured here: The original paper that I used to title my painting Ohio Shared With Me A Goodbye.

I felt Ohio share with me a goodbye:

A reminder of my Granny’s perfume.

A memory of one Easter Sunday

In her brightly lit living room.

Ohio spoke on a breeze that followed

On one of my evening strolls.

In the music from a neighbor’s car,

From the moon as he shined “Hello”.

I sensed the people I had met

From age 5 to 32.

I felt them between my gut and my chest

Standing in this outside room.

We all shared a silence together

(Which is something I always crave).

This was both a gift from Time

And from God, a moment of grace.

“I love you,” Ohio whispered once.

My quick reply: “I love you, too”.

For the first time in 27 years

I felt my soul, in her presence, bloom.

“I’ll be back,” I told Ohio

“We don’t need to say goodbye.”

But she reminded me how significant moments

Deserve marking and quiet.

Hey, I Hope You Have A Great Day is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.