Reflections…

“As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas, and colors enough to pain the beautiful things I see.” -Vincent Van Gogh

…on Loving Vincent

I’m not much of a moviegoer - I tend to lose myself more easily in books and conversation - but one film I felt I had to see was “Loving Vincent” when it played at the County Theater in the autumn of 2017. There was something about it I didn’t want to miss. The fact that it was entirely hand-painted, the way Vincent van Gogh’s story was told through his own style of brushstrokes, and the quiet intimacy of the storytelling all felt deeply alive to me. And with him being one of my favorite painters, it felt personal in a way I didn’t fully expect. I remember sitting there, completely absorbed, feeling unexpectedly tender and overwhelmed at times. I cried through much of it - not just from sadness, but from recognition, from beauty, from something I couldn’t quite name.

I left with a question that’s stayed with me ever since, something I still come back to in quieter moments: do we ever really have enough time to experience - and share - all the beauty that’s around us? I don’t mean only the big, unforgettable moments, but the small, easily missed ones too - a passing exchange with someone, the way light falls in a room, a line in a book that lingers longer than expected. It makes me wonder if noticing is its own kind of practice… and whether we ever truly get to take it all in, or if part of life is simply learning to stay open to what we can.

And maybe that’s where gratitude quietly meets us - not in holding onto every moment, but in letting ourselves be moved by them while they’re here. In noticing, in pausing, in allowing something beautiful to land before it passes.

It’s something I’m still learning, slowly, in my own way - to stay a little more open, a little more present, and a little more willing to be surprised by what shows up in ordinary days.

In peace and gratitude,

~Barb