Here’s the first painting of 2021: I call it, Appraising the Times Ahead.

Appraisal
The cat is 2021; confined to my fishbowl, I warily wonder what the future holds.
Why am I Worried?
The storm COVID has moved closer, striking several of my friends, just as the New Year arrived. Their symptoms differ: from asymptomatic to sick, to deathly sick. Nobody was being a daredevil.
If that news was not bad enough, current events are disturbingly dicey. So, worries have moved into my dreams, troubling me with images of unexpressed fears. Some wake me up – like an unexpected clap of thunder in a snowstorm.
Have you heard them?
Reality
I can’t both take a deep breath, and I hold my breath, waiting for the next shoe to drop.
Replace fear with gratitude, and your whole world changes. ~Terri Guillemets
As 2021 starts, I could count the losses. But,
If you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it. ~Anthony J. D’Angelo, The College Blue Book
Doing anything about anything is trickier than it was January 2020. But consider: just being able to breathe, have a pulse, and read are simple pleasures we didn’t realize back then. So we start 2021 with THREE specific reasons to be grateful!
Today if I can’t be grateful for what is in my life, let me be deeply appreciative of what is not, I say as distant thunder rumbles.
When a man is at his wits’ end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get in touch with Reality. ~Oswald Chambers
Speaking of reality:
Anyone at any moment can start a new future through Christ! (Robby Higginbottom)
Remember, when we hear unexpected thunder, if we have a pulse, we have a purpose, and singing invigorates our pulse! Sing with me: Jesus King of Angels.

inspired by Annie O’Brien Gonzales
The test of all happiness is gratitude. ~Gilbert K. Chesterton
Happy that I stumbled upon your site and this lovely painting compelled me to comment!
Beautifully expressed and rather visually appealing! Gratitude is the best way to start each new day! ?
Thank you . . . studying Matisse’s colors is a real tonic
What you say about gratitude is so, so true! Thank you! I love ❤️ you.
Before reading these beautiful words, I had just listened to “Even If” by Mercy Me. It fits perfectly with what you have written. Thank you!
A link to Even IF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_WSeZh5mWA
Thank you for suggesting it!
Oh Barb. What a wonderful post, from the painting to the meditation, to the song. And the quotes! I leave this little devotional moment in a much better place state of mind and spirit than when I opened the post❤️
Thank you, dear friend, and thanking God for Jesus King of Angels which I am singing, along with Even if
… but he is so cute (Cat 2021)! I love both of these paintings. And, surely, gratitude is the way to look up.
As I painted yesterday, I listened to Prairie Fires by Carolyn Fraser –reminded me how much trouble so many families have had through circumstances beyond their control — and how bad things could become with simple decisions they did make.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/prairie-fires-laura-ingalls-wilder/