"Pink & White Bouquet" Oil Painting by Artist, NORA KASTEN

"Pink & White Bouquet"

© Nora Kasten

Oil painting on linen on board  (24"x30") From archives

This is one of the five paintings I'll be submitting to the Baptist church Art Show / fundraiser on April 14, 2011, here in Naples.

Below is a page from the book "Healing After Loss" by Martha Whitmore Hickman.

"Whereas previously our moods seemed simply sad with occasional patches of light, now we may find an unsettling variety in our feelings, as happy times seem engrossing and satisfying, and then we are plunged into sadness again.  Perhaps we can learn to accept these mood swings, recognizing the reality of each, knowing light gives way to darkness and darkness to light."

                                                                                              --Martha Whitmore Hickman

     "When we begin to feel better we enter a new range of feelings, maybe even some guilt - How could I feel good when the one I loved is gone?  But even when we succeed in putting that false monster aside, the mood fluctuation can be unsettling.  We'll be having a genuinely wonderful time, freed at last from that continual background music of sadness.  Then we remember, and it feels like dropping through a trapdoor - a much more sudden and upsetting shift than when sadness was our prevailing mood.

     This is all part of our healing process.  Just as a physical wound has it's painful and pain-free moments, so does this wound of loss.  At least we know we're moving in the right direction."

Today's Affirmation

"I will revel in the times I can be happy - which is what my loved one would want for me."

NORA KASTEN WEBSITE