I created this speedpaint in an hour or so total of free time that I had during and after my summer Trauma and Emergency intensive classes. It does not have a lot of detail, but as I created it I was relieving stress as well as expressing the strong sense of hope I felt after taking in the information and ideas from the intensive week. More than anything, I am amazed by how resilient people are. Unfortunately, pain and adversity are parts of what it means to be human. Nevertheless, like phoenixes rising from the ashes of loss, humanity continues on. Every day, people find meaning, hope, courage, and strength that they could not have imagined that they had. It is humbling. Great are the losses many of my clients have known. And as helping professionals many of us are also wounded even though it is our job to heal. However, as humans, many of us are taking that loss or pain or trauma and letting it spur us on to do greater things, to dream bigger, to return to what really matters to us. Oftentimes, we can’t do it alone. We rely on those who matter most to us: family, friends, God/a Higher Power. While trauma is by nature destructive, terrible, something we would prevent if we could, sometimes we can make it a transformative agent. This is resilience, and it is an honor to see this in my clients every week and even play a small part in helping them cultivate it. We are like plants growing again after a fire. We are like fish swimming against the current and making headway, however slow. Even small, fragile insects know how to survive a rainstorm by falling within the raindrops instead of being overwhelmed by them. Life is tenacious. We have faced adversity and we will face it again, but here I take a moment to appreciate how people can overcome the bad things, like phoenixes from the ashes.
Art with Joelle 