Living in a painting

There are so many times that I've looked at a painting ( my mom collects them) and wondered how would , if the characters came to life, live in that beautiful landscape. Among the many images of roses or portraits of people dancing, we have many landscape paintings that depict a magnificent landscape full of vibrant plants, and a rich life force apparent in the vibrant colors, motion of the brush strokes, and sheer beauty.

But it isn't as often that I look at those paintings, and then look at my current surrounding to appreciate its' beauty. Yesterday I was reminded that we are living in the most beautiful painting of all ( as gouda cheesy as that sounds). It is so true!! Think about it, everytime you walk through Vanderbilt campus, all one needs to do is look to the left or the right to see the variety of natural treasures there are. We don't need a painting ( although a well painted masterpiece always serves as a decent substitute to the real thing) The tulips, the magnolia flowers, the emerald green silk textured grass are all things we see "live and in living color" each day. What a blessing that we can admire these gifts in real life, run our fingers through the grass, or climb a magnolia tree and poke our head into the flowers ( I may or may not have done this before).

My most memorable image of this summer as of yet is of a walk I had through campus yesterday : Here is the "live painting". Close your eyes ( after you read this) and imagine what I describe ( or even better, try to recreate it in a painting!) :

- Large magnolia trees ( and every other you can think of) hovering over wooden benches

- The sky is that mix between light royal blue and "cerulean" (look it up, I had to) with the clouds still visible.

- The air was warm, but carried with it a cool breeze that lightly tickles your cheek and brushes through your hair

- and then the best part, dancing over the vast emerald green lawn are an orchestra of sparkling topaz fire-flies, lighting their way through the early evening. It was lovely!

(explanation of photos : if you so care to know

Photo 1 : Barrio de Jesus, Costa Rica : We went exploring in a backyard. We felt like we were exploring this vast new land. It was a living masterpiece indeed, and the photo really doesn't even begin to depict it.

Photo 2 : Parque Nacional de Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica. Another living masterpiece : beaches, monkeys that eat doritos (photo to come haha), and any type of plant you can think of...and cock roaches :)

Photo 3 : San Juan, Puerto Rico. My wonderful ASB group and I took a break to enjoy the beautiful parque del San Cristobal.