I took a photograph of a barn when I was on a walk with my wife. I like the picture because the old barn, weathered gray after many years still stood proudly for all of us to see. I had the opportunity to use a Coral program, which transformed my photo into a painting by tansforming it into brush strokes. It looked different, but it was still the old barn.

Everyday life changes us, transforms us through the brush strokes of time. We look different, but we are still ourselves. Like the old barn, I have stood the test of time, but I am still standing.

My students looked at my engagement picture and then looked at me. They couldn't believe that the young man without a beard was the old man with a gray beard that they see every day. The young man was in the spring season of his life, and I am in the winter of my life. The young man was beginning a new journey, an exciting adventure. He had his whole life ahead of him and was strong and vital. I am moving toward the end of my life and parts of me don't work as well.
I go to a physical therapist twice a week and he works on my back, my wrist and a finger on my right hand, which has the beginning of arthritis. Yes, he has an approach to taking the stiffness out of my finger and my back, and a way to strengthen my wrist. His treatments have helped to push back some of the brushstrokes of time, but time continues to work on my body each day with new brush strokes.
I used to enjoy loud, large gatherings of people. Silence and solitude seem to be more attractive now and I enjoy being alone with myself. Of course, I enjoy family gatherings and time with my grown up children and my wife. I don't see my family as much.. Myself and my wife are more available. Brush strokes of time also change all of our lives.
Our lives are all like a painter's canvas and our pictures change with new brush strokes. A young man who supervises my exercises during physical therapy grew up without a father. We are going to play disk golf together, new brush strokes on my canvas. Life changes and offers us some new and good things. Each person has opportunities for some good brush strokes. We enjoy the colorful brush strokes, but they can fade in time. Winter isn't as colorful as spring, but there are some flowers that arrive in the winter, like the desert cactus which blooms in winter.

I discovered that we can find new colors in our lives, even in our winter season. Perhaps this blog will be like that.