When I went to the Mansion to conduct my meditations class, I found artist Nicole Kline working on her wall mural for the new activities room. (The yellow sun is a reflection from a ceiling light, it isn’t in the mural).

Nicole reminded me that we had met when she worked in the local hardware store before corporate people took it over and fired the entire staff. She’s worked in a number of different jobs since and is occupied now with some mural painting work.

She seems determined, as many local artists do, to find a creative niche in a small town where money is scarce. It’s a strong creative challenge, and the people fighting for it often seem heroic to me.

But creativity is a sacred thing to me.

Nicole’s mural is interesting and evocative. At first, it seemed dark to me, I’m a color addict, but as I looked at it, I  see the spirituality running through it, and how relevant it is to the Mansion residents.

For sure, they are on a path that leads to the light, and I saw this morning what they see that in the mural. It reflects precisely where they are.

They will be spending a lot of time looking at it and thinking about it. That’s just what murals ought to do. It was nice to see Nicole laboring away at the wall mural. I remembered her as being smart, nice, and helpful.

I didn’t know she was an artist.

She sent me the nicest message after I left:  “…I wanted to say it’s a very nice thing you do for the folks living there. They really seem to love when you visit. They talk about you when you are not there.”

Same to you Nicole, it’s a nice thing you are doing also. I love the Mansion residents and enjoy my visits as much or more than they do. I think the mural is nearly done.