Musings from Debbie: Romancing my soul - God remembers what I have forgotten

The first time I saw the aquamarine azure blue seawaters of Pulau Redang was in August 1990 at my first TCF camp.I took leave from work to look after our then newborn son Ken Jon. That trip was to give myself a break before I offically returned to work. The beautiful blend of the various hues of blue in the seawater took my breath away! I was acutely aware that the mesmerising blend of seawaters colours could only be captured by watercolour painting or photography. I inwardly vowed that one day I would learn water colour painting so I could paint the seawaters. Fast forward to the year 2020. I attended Prof Rebecca 's course on "Walk Me Home Safely" where 1 unit - Romancing my Soul -caught my heart. And in romancing my soul, I had listed things I wanted to do for myself - painting,learning Mandarin,dancing ... etc. The Covid pandemic of 2020 gave me space and time to begin water colour painting. And I simply found the painting very theraputic and deeply healing. I painted many pictures then. Post pandemic travel and activities saw me too busy to paint until I had a fall and surgery on my wrist in September 2024. Post surgery,I was not allowed to cook, clean, cut,drive etc which left me housebound with a lot of time. So I took out my painting stuff and started painting. I also began teaching our 2 granddaughters watercolour painting.

Emma painted her 2nd beach scene. She painted the skies, sea waters, beach all by herself but told meclearly I had to paint the waves for her. I am very pleased she can accurately assess her painting abilities. She is aware she can paint horizontal strokes well but she is also aware she can't do the wave strokes. Emma is indeed an intuitive 7 going to be 8-years old little girl! As I painted the waves on Emma's beach scene, my heart remembered that first beach scene of Pulau Redang and my forgotten vow. But God remembers what I have forgotten and He fulfils my vow and desire. Well, it seems to taken almost forever. 2024 is 34 years away from that 'vow'in 1990 when Ken Jon was 11 months old. The combined Emma and Popo's painting is a reminder that God does not forget and He has fulfilled a long forgotten dream. My heart is happy and contented.

Credits of photo to Helen Suk

I also tried Chinese art painting. I was happy with my peony painting because it both was an physiotherapy exercise and assessments of my healing wrist's progress.The peony reminded me of our April 2024 trip to Shanghai Hangzou Suzhou primarily to see the peonies. We also went to Wenzhou to see the Chinese landscape 山水 art form. There is a long journey ahead of me in Chinese art painting which I shall couple together with my Mandarin learning journey.