Watercolor: Like the Yard I Grew Up In - Only Completely Bare (Except for a Few Trees)!

This was so surreal to find! This scene is very similar to the backyard I grew up in - same cyclone fence; same brick wall, topped with a wooden privacy fence - ONLY, it's COMPLETELY BARE (except for a few trees)! [The round light in the top left of this photo of my Mom's painting is just a light reflection.]

I find this to be rather ethereal, on the one hand; but "un-doing", for a lack of a better description, on the other. You see, my Mom's yard was anything BUT bare/ vacant! She left a nice long middle section of lawn; BUT, artfully crammed as many colorful perennials and annuals, roses, vegetables, herbs, berries, grapes, hops, pear trees, tall-slim-type apple trees, etc. as she could in her yard - plus, she had pieces of her artwork, cute planter arrangements, cool split-open geode crystal rocks, etc. filling her yard with as much interest as an amusement park for gardeners/ plant lovers/ artists in general. Again, if you needed a fresh cooking herb, yeah, she probably had it. Scarlet runner beans - big and green, but with magenta-colored bean-seeds inside? Had 'em, growing all over a stretch of her fence. Raspberries? Yup, despite the pain-in-the-rear stickers. Asparagus? Yes - exciting-to-find, tasty, special stuff. Rainbow Swiss chard that looked like it was from outer space? Yes, and amazing it was. 

The BEST grapes I ever tasted in my whole life - better than any wine, too - were handed to me by my Mom, who grew them on her fence (in Minnesota)! She told me she saved them especially for me. Each grape burst with a cross between a perfect, sweet, golden grape, holding much sunshine - and a fragrant, elegant and delectable ice wine/ sweet dessert wine. They were unbelievably wonderful.My Mom explained that she entered them in the State Fair, and won a ribbon...

So, between these things and more - especially when our yard was busy with kids, neighbor kids, an occasional  badminton net, kiddie pools, improvised tents, a swing set, a sprinkler to run through, toys of all sorts, balls rolled off the garage roof for yards games, etc., etc. - and my Mom, me, and my brothers and sister hanging around; from soon after our family had settled in (in about 1966), our yard was never empty.

However, things can suddenly, drastically change - and sometimes, so devastatingly too, can't they?

Except for memories and pictures, really, in a way, the yard itself has gone back to being as good as a blank slate to me - someone else's: It is now the yard belonging to some strangers, who bought my Mom's house, after she passed away, and my brother and I cleared everything out...Everything that was there is gone - except for the fancy trees; flowers and herbs that come up every year; the grape vines, etc....I had loved the daffodils and hyacinths that would burst out of the ground; the irises and amazing purple tulips too; the hydrangeas (that my Mom would "feed" to keep purple); the yarrow, the curly willow tree that my Mom cultivated (and would craft things out of); the "white" garden section; the bright orange Chinese lanterns that would hail the fall; the chocolate mint that isn't supposed to be perennial here, but which grew abundantly in her yard.....

I really hope that the "new" people appreciate these things!

There is a more positive and hopeful aspect to this picture for me too though. My dear Mom is gone for now, sleeping in death - which is sad, indeed. However, between now and the time Jah resurrects her back to life, into His new world system - His promised Kingdom - here; there are going to be tremendous changes. After God's Day of Armageddon, it may well be for people then that their vista will be as wide, open, and "new again" before them as the world was for Noah and family, after they stepped out of the Ark, after the Great Flood. 

The world will be like a "blank slate" again, in many ways (though this time, vegetation and other good things of creation will still be there) - A LOT LIKE THIS NEAR-BLANK TABLEAU (again) BACK YARD! Yet, that future, like this yard, will be characterized by POTENTIAL. Jah will carry out His promises for a new and better world here then - to cause all suffering and troubles to disappear; but to cause conditions for mankind, world-over, to become paradisaic.

Life here will become the way it was meant to be, again, like in Eden. People will live in peace, happiness, and security then - the human family will live together, having true love for one another then - as learned from Jah and His Son. 

Under these much-more-than "improved" conditions, potential will burst forth into wonderful things for individuals and the family of man - in, metaphorically, the same way  that magnificent daffodils would burst out from the soil of my Mom's garden.