interesting places

I love quotes.

Listen hard for them in everyday speech.  Find them on the pages of dialogue between friends —

And yes — even strangers.

In books.  On the screen.  Floating in the air.

Jotted in shorthand on post-its and stuck on the wall facing me at my desk.  Copied and pasted from the screen and carefully tucked away for a rainy day.  Scribbled on the fly  in my battered composition book — dare I confess —

Even while I’m driving.

Oh god, I’m sounding like some kind of addict —

Or, god forbid — hoarder —

But really, it’s more like a beautiful obsession.  One that helps me make sense of the world —

And steady myself on the tight rope that is life.

Today — feeling a tad melan-choly — leaving-a-close-friend-after-a-nice-long-visit-choly —

I cozy up with one of my favorite quotes.

By Paul Gardner, it goes like this:

“A painting is never finished — it simply stops in interesting places.”

And since I also just “never finished” my first watercolor painting — featuring my favorite concrete expression of man’s enduring capacity to nurture and protect who and what he loves —

You guessed it —

A barn —

I am even more fond of it today.

Yes, after a prolonged period of waiting, it’s time to part with the way it has been — and that comes with both hesitation and slightly overcast skies.

Still — I move forward taking comfort in the knowledge that the last stroke always leaves something interesting —

And like a well-worn t-shirt under a new suit —

It’s next to my skin —

And never far from my heart.