Where are your heart and mind focused? It’s easy to get wrapped up in the constantly changing daily news. Many are out of work, separated from families, confined to their homes, and wondering what the future holds. Are you focusing on what you can’t do? Or are you focusing on what you can do?

In the past month, my part of the world (my yard), has made a giant transformation from gray, brown, lifeless vegetation to bright green leaves, flower blossoms, green grass, birds singing and building nests to lay eggs, garden seeds sprouting, bees buzzing, frogs chirping. You know what? It happens every year! Winter seems to last forever and then spring peeks out and new life appears. I am choosing to take a closer look at the new happening around me and focus on spring and new life.

A walk around my yard a couple weeks ago revealed forsythia, daffodils, and flowering quince.

They inspired me to try some negative watercolor painting.

Then while sorting through some old drawings I came across this sketch I made of a bird house.

This birdhouse sketch, done for an art challenge in 2014, was inspired by a photo taken on a trip in upstate NY. Since I’d just started seeing bluebirds out in the yard, I decided to combine this sketch, a bluebird, and forsythia bushes into a painting.

Then the redbuds started to bloom, so I painted a small branch of blossoms.

During this time of uncertainty, many artists around the world have been offering classes online for free to help encourage people to try something new or to expand their creativity. I came across a class by Birgit O’Connor to learn how to paint a large rhododendron flower.

Painting this has inspired me to try doing some closeups of other things.

Just like spring comes after winter with newness of life, this season we are going through in our world will change. Try to focus on the good things you see around you. Choose to be a good person, to love more, to care more, to find ways to create beauty in your world and share it with others.

What are you focusing on?