“The nice thing about ageing is that
you can look back on your life and see life’s
biggest struggles were the bits that made you.  
Steve Parish 

Part of the challenge of creating something just for you is permitting yourself to do it. Depending on the level of change involved, this may well affect your current life situation. There may be a need to examine and reset priorities.

Issues that arise with those who share your world may have to be negotiated: after all, the chosen path may be costly in money, space and time. Taking time to explore the new-found creative self,  along with the acceptance of new kinds of tension, change and disappointments in life, will all become part of the struggle.

The good news is that, over time and with patience and tolerance, the struggle,  whether physical or emotional, becomes easier to deal with. There are times when the path to  resolution is not clear and sometimes the accompanying frustration seems overwhelming.  However, once your life adapts to its new rhythms, exciting possibilities and  discoveries may lead to paths that were once beyond your imagination.

Image above: ‘Tenacity’.
 This tough little wind-blown Tea-tree is growing almost horizontally to the ground. It has sent its roots on what one could describe as a horizontal journey for survival. A great metaphor for life’s journey, reminding one that while we humans crave certainty, true certainty does not exist, it is an illusion. Only a willingness to embrace change, an inherent desire to always remain open to life challenges, enables all living things even a moderate chance of survival. When considered in the human condition, I believe that lack of certainty is the single most significant cause of depression. Yet, conversely, adversity can also be a potent driver to affirmative action.

Footnote: Recently, as a result of the bushfires on Kangaroo Island, this very tree that inspired this artwork and all around it were destroyed. It will take a very long time for this vegetation to regrow, but regrow it will. This is the nature of loss and recovery; it may take time to heal the wounds. For the natural environment, healing may be in the decades; for humans, healing takes as long as we allow it to take.

‘Over Time’
Everywhere you look in the natural world there are signs of struggle, it is an integral process for all living and non-living things.

 ‘Twists and Turns’
Mangroves create a community for other plants and animals such as the mangrove crab and a multitude of fishes. I find the artful twists and turns of these critical and distinctive trees irresistible as subjects — an excellent metaphor for our need to develop multiple opportunities for whatever challenges may lie ahead.
Cape Tribulation, Daintree National Park, Queensland.

‘Transformation’
A pause in the struggle for survival for the birds and animals that live in and around the rivers that feed Lake Eyre. The amazing transformation of parched dry land into an oasis of colour and life is something that remains with you reminding that tough times do pass. Lake Eyre’s north-east coast where Warburton River joins the Lake.

‘Against All Odds’
A snow gum seemingly defeats a formidable obstacle to finally reach maturity. Mount Field National Park, Tasmania.

‘Past and Present’
Shale and wildflowers – the juxtaposition of ancient (past) and the new (present) covered the landscape. I had miraculously timed my visit to this ancient landscape at the moment in time when rainfall levels had excited a rare wildflower blooming. Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park, South Australia.