For Convenience Sake

BumberShootStudio Paintings

From the time I first sprouted a pinto bean in a plastic bag with wet paper towels, I knew I was meant to garden, it was in my blood. I was five years old then.

My dream of growing up and having a place with this garden never transpired quite like I thought. But if it had, it would have been complete with chickens who laid plenty of eggs and a cow who gave plenty of milk. This would of course mean plenty of fresh cream and butter! There would be many other animals in my little garden of Eden as well, but that is another story...

Over the years I have seen eggs become artificial, margarine take the place of butter...and milk, well who needs milk anymore! Everything is processed now, even our fruits and vegetables have been tampered with. All in the name of convenience (and money).

The idea behind saving time and simplifying our work sounds good but somehow always seems to come at a cost.

As I sit in a foreign country that is literally riddled with cancer...dutifully soaking my fruits and vegetables in vinegar water because of the amounts of pesticides used on them...I can't help but think about the consequences for convenience sake that seem to plague us all,

no matter where we reside. 

True Color

BumberShootStudio Paintings
Copyright 2016
'Mirror, Mirror'

Mirror, mirror on the wall...
It was the day before a routine hair appointment to color my gray roots
when I glanced in the mirror and saw something I had never seen before. It looked like someone had dumped glitter all over my head!

It was a couple weeks passed the normal time I usually had my hair dyed to cover the monthly growth, so the silver was long enough to catch the light...it actually sparkled!

In nineteen-ninety-four my family and I moved to China, within three years I had gone prematurely gray. I was in my twenties when I had to start coloring my hair. I have been dying my hair every month since without giving it a second thought, never once have I questioned it...

Covering your gray hair is what we do, especially if your a woman,
my time just came sooner then others and that is as deep in thought about it as I went. Which is strange for me because I'm not the status quo kinda gal.
The stigma that comes with the gray hair is quite powerful.

Staring in that mirror, twenty years and over two-hundred bottles of dye later,
I saw a glimpse of the real me for the first time...
and I love it!