What does it feel like to be safe? To know that you are free to mess up, to make mistakes, to be your beautiful, imperfect self? To know that even if you do something wrong, you are still seen, known, and cherished?
Many of us have experienced our fair share of conditional love and transactional relationships: IF you give me this, then I’ll give you that. IF you meet my expectations of who I think you should be and how I think you should serve me, then I will accept you.
If you’ve been accustomed to this type of counterfeit love, encountering the real thing completely transforms you and challenges everything you thought you knew about love and connection.
But in order to experience it, you first have to learn to open yourself to it. To give up your ideas of how you think you need to earn it. To simply surrender and receive.
This painting, “Nearness,” is inspired by those transformative relationships that teach us the real meaning of love.
