I started this piece two days after my right shoulder surgery (I am right handed). It was a challenge but I HAD to paint. It is the only thing that keeps me grounded to sanity. I wanted to do something different because I was in a place where I had to keep still. I couldn’t race around at 100 miles an hour because it was painful. I needed stillness, not only in the days after, but I needed to incorporate stillness throughout my day. My brain cannot continue at this pace for long term because I think I would go mad. Maybe I have already. But I need to stop, meditate, and observe the world around me every single day. At least for a few minutes. I find more ideas are able to land in my conscious brain when I do that. And I enjoy it. I thought if I sat still too long, the dark thoughts would quickly consume me. But they don’t anymore. They are there, but they have their place.