Week 150

We modified the palette outrageously. Instead of the subdued colors sanctified by antiquity, Laert chose to plunge in with the loveliest tones of pink, purple, and turquoise. I was as nervous about the change as I was inexplicably propelled and invigorated.

This mission in Santa Barbara, California, cradled the resting place and the memory of the Indian woman immortalized in “Island of the Blue Dolphins” by Scott O’Dell. Her harrowing tale rested around our ankles like a deep sigh that would lift and settle.

From soft, subtle strokes to thick, talkative ones, The Mission took on a whole new life. Each time we reached out with an opulent load on our palette knife, the place where efforts to do good that ended in tragedy lifted in redemption. It was as if by being seen and painted by two artists, the life intention that breathed there under the dull layers pulsed through the shame of perceived failure. It is possible to be buried under the ways we have tried to do good and fail. The honest intention is there. It never left. Could you take this as permission to be seen differently? The notes of pink and purple that denote goodness and life in you, instead of seeing them in minuscule strokes, could you repaint them as great risky daubs? Could you allow yourself the vulnerability of seeing your goodness and failures and risking again? This is the mission. - K