Birds in the rain

My day was very productive, and lots have unfolded, preparing for my move and my new life. The result: I’m exhausted. My favourite decompressing sounds are those of the rain in a forest with birds singing in the background. I don’t know the comfort sounds that make you feel safe and at ease, but those are mine.

I’ve been drawn to this type of ambient noise since I’ve decided to find freedom in sedentary at about this time last year. A powerful desire to reconnect with nature was slowly anchoring itself in my determination. I wanted to explore sustainable living either in the woods or on a hobby farm.

Then, at the begging of the month, I decided to use painting as a form of meditation. Letting my water painting crayons dance on the cardboard and allowing my paintbrush to soften the tones with touches of water by the end, I try not to be forceful in achieving a specific outcome. I would describe it as automatic drawing and painting. Sometimes it’s abstract, and sometimes it takes shape into something tangible. One reoccurring them is nature — ether wide-open fields separated by a dirt path or forests with a pond.

As I’m writing in an automatic fashion tonight, I’ve simply tapped in my feelings and listened to my heart. I had no clue what I wanted to talk about and had no drafts under construction. The soothing sounds of the birds, the water droplets falling on the tree leaves and the perceptible scent of wet earth in my mind are guiding my fingers on the keyboard.

Now, it strikes me. Those images that keep emerging from my meditative paintings and the sounds my heart repeatedly asks for are the expression of a deep longing. I’m called to go back to where I found peace as a child — in the arms of mother nature. My art has recaptured the sceneries of my childhood, part in the open space of the West African savanna and part in the Canadian forest.

The best part, where I’m going to move and spend many years studying the program of my dreams, is in the region I’ve lived some of my best childhood memories at our family cottage… in the forest… by a pond… where rain was frequent and birds always present.