Sweet Child of the Universe, Keep Wandering

I'll tell the story of this painting with a poem I wrote, to myself and anyone grappling with similar existential questions, about finding purpose, direction, meaning in life:

Understand that you can’t control it all.
There is randomness and meaning
Co-existing here.
You can’t map out your life completely nor
Can you afford to go, just go with the way
The wild blows.

You are not wind.
You are not a tree.
You are not a river.
You are not a bird.
You are you.

Yes, your soul does know which way to go and
You are already listening.
Yet, you are human. You are not just your soul.
Your life is more than the sum of its parts.
How much sense would it make if it all made sense?
Maybe not much. Maybe less sense.
You know and yet, your path would never
Require you to be aware of everything in a single moment.

Trust that the wandering, the listening, the noticing, the faith, the dreams, the love, all of this, all of that - it’s all weaving, turning, twisting, connecting in ways I don’t need to be aware of all of the time.

Sometimes, all I need to do is go out there and be a human being.
Sometimes, I need time to reflect and think from a different perspective like climbing a tree and sitting, watching from a higher vantage point.
But I can’t sit at the top of the tree every day all day long. How would I live, really live, while watching, always analyzing? Then, how could I experience anything other than sitting at the top of a tree?

Sweet child of the Universe,
This is why sometimes you let your thoughts
Lower to a whisper, you let your mind go quiet,
Living right here, now, wandering through
This life, day in, day out, moment to
Moment, breath to breath, as
Each tomorrow turns to today.

About the Love Letters to Mother Earth collection

What moves us toward protection and care if not love? In honoring and loving my natural self, my soul, I learn how to safeguard my tenderness and the magic that is mine to wield. And this love guides me toward the people and spaces where I feel free and valued as my true self.

My hope is that in honoring and loving wild lands, tender artists, our authentic selves, this mysterious and beautiful universe, and this magical and messy planet of ours, we will learn to safeguard what is precious and sacred in each other and this world. Standing under a canopy of towering trees is humbling, freeing, incomparably special. It’s precious. So are you and so am I and so is each river and forest and so is this planet.