"Can We Just Do Art?"

Brain cancer is...

...surrounded by lovers of the arts.

Above you see Lilly, creating.  Lilly and Andi are working together some while Lilly's learning at home during the school closures.  When we started, I thought it might be a great idea to read the best children's series ever written, Harry Potter, together.  Lilly was game, but after one session of Harry, she politely asked, "Can we just do art?"  Hey, Lilly's just saying what everyone else is thinking!

A close second to nature on Team D's coping list is...the arts!  People are coping through the arts by creating, as Lilly is, as Kristine and her people are, and as others are.  Here's what Christine shared:

The Mayfield have learned that art heals.

Visual arts:  Today while creating new chalk art for Placentia walkers, we were thanked by a young couple who told us how happy our messages made them last week. Not only were our hearts lifted by our new artistic creations, but hearing gratitude from strangers made our hearts soar! 

Performing arts: Weekly Covid Concerts performed by the QuaranTunes (my son, my nephew, and my cousin) fill our Saturday nights with song and laughter! Thank you, Zoom!

Linda broadens our understanding of "creating art to the addition" of beauty in our lives and our surroundings.

But Team D is also coping through appreciation of the arts.  Many of you mentioned the healing power of music.  Suzie shared praise music, and Curt chooses Broadway showtunes. You're also sharing videos of people making music together using innovative strategies to close physical distances.

Perhaps it goes without saying that Darrell and I resonate with your choice of the arts as a strategy for transcending tough times.  You may recall Darrell's "song of the day"?  He used to sing daily.  Here's the post that explored the '70s songs that made up his list of hits for a while.  

And it was only a month or so after Darrell's diagnosis that the CSUF College of Education family brought Darrell an art journal filled with page after page of artists' "favorite places."  (Here's the March 2016 post, which includes a video of the making of the journal.)  We still pull it off the shelf and appreciate the love behind every stroke of paint.

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”  --Pablo Picasso

Today's Bloom

Daffodils in the Garden of Taylor and Sarah