Hold Your Chin Up & Carry On!

My painting, “Tribulation”. (there are more details when viewing in person)

Hey, beautiful people! This is my painting entitled, “Tribulation”. We have all experienced and endured our own share of trials and tribulations, especially in the last year or so. What is it they say, adversity builds character? Then we will all have “character” in abundance, right?

I spent a good portion of my young adult life living in farming/ranching country on the flat plains of West Texas. It is in the summertime mid to late afternoon when fierce thunderstorms like this would often sweep in out of the southwest with nothing to impede their impact. There are no significant trees, buildings, hills or other structures to create any kind of windbreak and when a storm that looks like this one is heading your way - usually accompanied with a full force of high winds and hail - you had better run for cover! You can see the dark angry-looking clouds churning as the system approaches; pushing a billowing whitish-grey advance of dust rushing before it. With this particular storm the sky turned so dark the street lamp out by the barn came on in the middle of the afternoon. Huge hailstones as large as softballs actually made a whistling sound as they hurtled through the air and impacted the ground with a resounding “thwack”. That was really eerie and unusual! I was so glad I got my pick-up inside the barn. Scary stuff!

This painting just expressed how I often feel as storms in real life come hurtling towards me. I can see the impending “Tribulation” of the storm, sometimes only moments before impact and it’s coming no matter what I do to stop it. Sometimes all I can do is hunker down, endure, and try to survive . . . to regroup and move on. As usual, the storm will pass and another day will dawn. You just have to square your shoulders, hold your chin up and carry on.

Blessings and have a great day!

Kathyna