where i come from

It is a small painting. its just two feet off the floor in a wall of paintings in a cold northern museum. its is a picture of a small house deep in a northern snow cradled by a vast alaska horizon. The sun is shadow on the horizon – in the softness just before dark. It is simple…small almost… and difficult to see so close to the floor. I crouched down low… wanting to touch it. suddenly i could see… and i loved it.

I fell deep inside the soft evening twilight and found myself alone in our amazing world breathing in stars on the edge of vast wilderness. I could see my breath in the cold and feel the crunch of the snow beneath my feet. i saw the greatness of our land and our God. I walked away seemingly hours later… only to come back the next day to see it once more before a long flight home.

Eight years later I still remember this one painting. This small piece of whispering art… tacked up 2 feet off the floor with a hammer. It reminds me of who I am … and where I come from.