Cubs, home runs, and cheese!

This photo brings back all sorts of memories from last fall and the World Series. It looks pretty normal at first -- a ball cap and a bag of Cracker Jacks (which I'd consume during every post-season game when the stress got too high).

But if you look carefully, you'll see an empty string cheese wrapper. 

Yep, string cheese. For every home run the Cubs hit, we'd give Freda (our German wire-haired pointer) a stick of string cheese. She was as Cubs-crazy as the rest of us by the time the Cubs won Game 7.

Anyway, I'm back on the couch again, watching the Cubs play the Cards in the opening game. No score, bottom of the second. Cards are threatening. Ugh. Seems weird (wrong!) to have Dexter Fowler on the opposing team.

Before I forget, April 2 is also important for another reason. 86 years ago today, Jackie Mitchell struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Check out the details on www.jeanpatrick.com

Mourning Pages

If you've done anything with "The Artist's Way," you know about morning pages.

But this post is about mourning pages, or rather, mourning paintings.

We've had a death in the family that has left an enormous void, and I've watched how my niece has been dealing with it. She's an incredible young woman with a high-stress, not-fun job, so it has been especially tough on her.

Anyway, she has been painting...and painting...and painting...and painting. Every once in a while, she'll send one of her paintings to me with a text message. They are intriguing -- full of vibrant greens and yellows and fierce purple-blue-blacks.

And her skies, wow.... She captures the nuances and light, yet almost always they are infiltrated by grey.

I find myself wanting to encourage her to keep her skies sunny and clear. But no, sometimes you have to let that darkness show, especially during the grief.

Write, paint, draw, create. It's how we survive.