Love, Loss and Letting Go… A Behind the Scenes Video of Mine For a Moment

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so I think it’s the perfect time to share a video that our team has been working on for quite some time: Behind The Scenes of my painting Mine For a Moment, which I painted after I lost a friend to cancer.

I’m excited that it’s finished, and that we now have a beautiful, moving way to present what this painting is all about, and remind people of our mission. From the beginning, we’ve been giving lithographs of Mine For a Moment away to people who have experienced personal loss or are working through grief in any form.

I’m amazed at how God has used this painting already to help bring peace to the couple who lost their child, the woman whose father passed away from cancer, and even a dear lady who had envisioned this exact scene at a retreat to help deal with aborting her baby over 30 years ago. (Read that story here.)

Mine For a Moment - Oil on Canvas

I hope that you’ll share this video on Facebook, Twitter, or by email.  Prints may be requested or donated to a friend either by visiting the Mine For a Moment website. More purchase options are available on TheArtistOfLife.com.

Cancer isn’t just something I hear about on the news or from a friend.  It’s very real to me now.  My Dad recently became cancer free after a year of waiting, treatment, and then finally receiving the great news that the cells were gone!  I’m grateful for the advances that are being made in medicine and treatment.  Consider taking this month and getting involved in the fight against cancer prevention and treatment.  Visit Susan G. Komen’s website for a great place to start.

The Call That Reminded Me Of My Call

I never know how God is going to use a painting that He’s called me to create. I may think I’m making it for one reason, but He uses it in a completely different way in someone’s life.

This truth presented itself in a powerful way last week!

A woman (we’ll call her Kay) called me on Thursday morning and said she didn’t really know how to tell me what she was about to say, but that one of my paintings had touched her deeply.  She proceeded to tell me that she had an abortion 30 years ago. She had dealt with a lot of pain and guilt since then, and had gotten involved with an organization called Rachel’s Vineyard.  This organization is dedicated to helping post-abortive women (and men) come to a place of healing and forgiveness for decisions they made in the past. Kay told me that she had attended one of their retreats and on it, they asked the women to visualize a beautiful field with children laughing and playing with Jesus. The sun was shining, and everyone was joyful. Kay took great comfort knowing that her unborn child was with Jesus and that some day she would get to meet her.

I say “her” because Kay is certain that her baby would have been a little girl… with brown hair and brown eyes.  She’s always felt it, and she even knew that her name would have been Rachel.

Fast forward to just a few weeks ago: Kay went to her dear friend’s home and saw a large package sitting out for her. It was a gift, and in it was a lithograph of my painting “Mine For a Moment.” She took it out and was moved to tears. For her, it was a depiction of her own daughter, grown up and playing in a field with Jesus.

“Mine For A Moment”

In the fall of 2008, while I was planning my wedding, a strong, courageous friend of mine was fighting for his life.

At age 34, Daniel Smith was vibrant, healthy, and full of promise. He was finishing medical school and running more marathons than I could count. He seemed to have his whole life ahead of him. On October 22, Daniel lost his 6-month long battle against squamous cell oral cancer.

I heard the news after coming back from my honeymoon. I know I cannot adequately describe how this news affected me, but I will try:

I experienced deep sadness, sympathy for his family and the painful sting of loss, all of which is to be expected. What I did not expect was to be confronted with the fear that Nate could be taken from me in a similar way.

Life was now fragile and unpredictable….fleeting. Of course, it always has been, but now I had this new person in my life that I wanted to hold on to so tightly.

For days, I considered the possibility of losing Nate. How would I be able to go on without this amazing man in my life? But this couldn’t really happen, could it? After all, God had given him to me; wasn’t that a guarantee that my next 50 years would be wonderful?

As naïve as that sounds, it really is how I felt. The evening I heard about Daniel’s passing, I was struggling to balance loving fiercely with a willingness to let go. Then something happened that I can only attribute to God’s leading.