The bonus in preparing a pastel as a demo for the class is I lose myself in the hour or two of drawing. A piece of me that I have otherwise ignored the rest of the month comes alive again, and all the worries and cares of life drift away. There is just me and the joy of creating. I feel sorry for people who do not have this outlet. Charles Spurgeon said, "It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy that makes happiness." Perhaps that's why the dolphin smiles. The joy spills over onto his face as he leaps into the air defying gravity, momentarily leaving his world. Droplets shimmer on his back, airborne just like the dolphin, before splashing again to the heavy sea.
Once when kayaking, and only once, I saw a wild dolphin leap like in this picture. I quickly pulled out my camera and waited, hoping to capture it on film, but it did not happen again. When joy occurs, enjoy it and feel the weightlessness of the moment. If anything life teaches us, it is that nothing here on earth is permanent. Just as we can't go back and erase mistakes, we cannot hold on to joy and make it permanent. Not here on earth. God is making us ache for a place where joy will never cease. But here on earth, as C.S. Lewis says, "The useless word is encore."
Beautiful!
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