It's a stormy, tempestuous day at sea. A young mother stands just outside the surf, looking out to the roiling waves and the brooding, dark clouds. In her arms she holds her son, relaxed and sleeping against her shoulder.
She is watching; she is alert; she is protecting that which is most precious to her.
Isn't this what parenthood is? Isn't this what mothers and fathers -- and grandparents and aunts and uncles, in short, family -- do?
Children are innocent and vulnerable, easily taken advantage of by not only individual strangers, but by organizations and governments, corporations and institutions, all of which seek to say, "We are your family. Leave your children in our charge."
I think not. The organizations are not there in the middle of the night when a child awakens with a nightmare. The institutions are not the ones who plan a birthday party and anxiously await, hoping someone will come. The government does not read the same story, day after day, in the exact same fashion because that is how the child insists.
They don't, and they shouldn't. Because that is the job of family.
I am a fine art painter who focuses on creating images of light, life, joy and beauty. I live on a small farm in a rural area of the western U.S., where life is quiet, calm, and in tune with nature. I seek to paint.. Read more…