Some time ago during my time here in France, I painted a sunflower from a photograph I took while out walking. This morning I was again out walking and passed a field of barley where some sunflowers were popping their heads above the stalks of grain and facing the sun.
Again I took some photographs, I just cannot resist. On looking at the photographs I took and the painting I did about two weeks ago or more and separated by more than 200 miles they look exactly the same. They have the exact same number of petals the same developing seed heads and the same pale green leaves. To all intents and purposes, they could have been from the same field in the same place at the same time. So it would be for any flower, nature and evolution have made then perfectly suited for the growing environment.
The beautiful lilies painted by Monet all those years ago would look very much the same as any painted today or tomorrow or photographed the only difference would be the artist's impression of them.
In many respects, nature has done the same with human beings. We have evolved to make the most of our planet and the surroundings we find ourselves in. The big difference is that there is no way we can say that we are all the same. Could have come from the same place and we all look alike. Rejoice nature has decided to make each of us a unique person.
This uniqueness makes us respond to each other in different ways. We have those who just do not like others for various reasons. Then we have those gems of people we are proud to call friends. Friends because of the way they treat us and others. I have spoken of this before but something that happened yesterday made me dwell a bit further on the quality and meaning of, "Friends," How I wish Facebook had used another word to define the those we associate with on the app.
Some people make enemies instead of friends because it is less trouble. True friendship is not simple or easy. It makes demands upon us and it never uses those we call friends for our own ends.
I was walking yesterday as I have said already and passed some sunflowers. I took some photographs. A little further on I met an old man carrying and a large bunch of some he had picked from the very field. We exchanged greetings and I asked him if I could photograph his fleurs. He held them up proudly and I took some photographs. He then understood why I was doing so as my wife told him I would paint them. He took the biggest bloom from his bunch and handed it to me putting his hand on my shoulder.
This could so easily have been the beginning of a new friendship starting out with the open act of giving. His bloom is now in a bottle of water on the table before me making me smile, as friendship does.
I will paint his flower and I will make every effort to find out how I can send him the file or even a print out of it. I will do this as an act of friendship.
Some other thoughts I dwelled on as I thought of friendship," Our opinion of people depends less on what we see in them than upon what they make us see in ourselves."
A small boy defined a friend as "Someone who knows all about you and likes you just the same."
"He who loves 50 has 50 woes. He who loves 10 has 10 woes. He who loves none has no woes." said the Buddha.
Once again I wish to thank those here who know me and still call me a friend, I hope I do not cause you too many woes.
Have a marvellous day.
No comments:
Post a Comment