In the Winter of my Life.

This is the painting I did to represent winter in my series of Vivaldi, The Four Seasons. Even in the midst of the gloom and the cold, there are those little things that bring colour into our lives. Those little winter flowers so unexpected on the road. 

I remember my youth and the fun I had in the winters of my youth. Hill 69 where we went sledging every child who lived in the street where I lived and some of the parents along with us, not to make sure we were safe but to take part and enjoy the fun. 

Oh, those wonderful days of youth.  How precious they have become as they have slipped further and further into the past. 

What I think most about my youth though was how I intensely wanted to change the world. From a very early stage in schooling, I got into a great deal of trouble because I did not always agree with what I was being taught. 

Yes, I wanted to change the world. I found it difficult, no, I found it impossible to change the world. 

So I joined a political party and decided to start with my nation. Maybe I could change that?  I campaigned I took part in marches, I got involved in civil disobedience. But my nation stayed the same.

So when I found I could not change the nation I got involved in the local scene. I ran youth clubs and all sorts of things. maybe I could at least change the town where I lived.

I could not do that so I turned to my family and thought I could maybe change them.  I ended up almost the black sheep, and maybe I still am. I continued to get involved in so many things, just to make a little change.

Now as I live in the winter of my life I realise that the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realise that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have had an impact on my family. My family could have had an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I just might have managed to change the world, well even if only my little corner of it. 

if we want to change anything the easiest thing to change is ourselves. 

Have a marvellous day.