A couple years ago my family was really struggling. My husband left a reliable job for the prospect of a new one that didn’t pan out for almost a year. It was a very difficult year in which we found ourselves extremely poor and nearly homeless on a couple occasions. Not an easy situation for a family with two small kids.

We spent an enormous amount of time hiking that year. We hiked when everything around us fell apart and we hiked while we were rebuilding. It was during the freefall to the bottom that we started taking evening hikes to clear our heads. I think these hikes really helped. They might not have been actively productive, but they made me stop and just breathe.

My husband calls this the “God Cloud” painting. I might’ve gotten a little carried away with the sun rays, but I think it works. I failed to take very many progress shots for this one. I took one of the clouds nearly done and one of the foreground nearly done. I suspect it’s becasue this painting came together so easily for me. I spent 2015 struggling through every single painting I completed. That struggle might finally be paying off.