I haven’t been writing lately. For the better part of this year, I’ve been in a funk. The words just would not come and I could not make them. My husband told me the other night he had missed me. Since I hadn’t been anywhere, I figured he was talking about the way I had been feeling. I had missed me too; I just couldn’t figure out how to get myself back.  I’m writing now, so I must have arrived safely out of my despondency and back to my life.

However, during the time of the funk (which could also, much to my dismay, be viewed as a mid-life crisis) I have been able to paint. So now, since I am ready, I would like to tell you about my latest work.

One Fine Day

depicts some of the best times of my life and hopefully yours as well. It is a time of being in love and being free. And that makes the skies much bluer, the clouds much brighter, the air sweeter, and the water more beautiful than we’ve ever seen. It is a magical time and it is the magic of our coastal islands that I tried to capture in this new painting.

I love to show this painting because I can see that for a moment it touches something in people. It strikes a chord of memories and just for that small space of time, they are there again.

I was showing some of my family the painting a few nights ago. After looking at the painting for a couple of minutes, one of the women remarked, “I want to be that girl.”  I replied, “I was that girl.” And I thought, "I still am."

 Most of us, if we are lucky enough for love to find us, have been that girl or that man. Most of us have had some magic moments of our own. My husband calls those times the pre-children years. It is true that children change everything and that is a wonderful change but there are a few things that I do miss.

Books, poems, songs and legends abound about the bewitchment of these islands. It is probably because of the diverse cultures that reside there and make up the history of the area. There is a unique African-American culture (called Gullah or Geechee culture) that developed in South Carolina from West Africa.  These are fascinating mysterious people to me and I imagine that they have a great deal to do with the islands magnetism. After all, they are a bit superstitious and they speak English in a way that is a language all their own. That alone has me wondering if they are holding on to some mystic power that conjures up the enchantment of this place. 

When I go there, I notice that as I cross over the bridges to the islands that the air is breezy, salty and it clings to me like a warm blanket. That is when the divine starts to take hold of me and my other world is far away. In this new world I become different; I am more relaxed, laid back and maybe even more in love with life. I have become freer with the crossing of the bridges. And it gives me great pleasure to take you there with me, if only for a moment.