Flipped

by Wendelin Van Draanen

The words always come out soft and somehow heavy when he’s brushing on the layers of a landscape. Not sad. Weary, maybe, but peaceful.

Outside is where the best landscapes are,

“A painting is more than the sum of its parts,” he would tell me, and then go on to explain how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun peeking through the trees is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you’ve got magic.

“One’s character is set at an early age, son. The choices you make now will affect you for the rest of your life.”

“Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss….” He turned to me. “But every once in a while you find someone who’s iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare.”

“To be held above the earth and brushed by the wind,” she said, “it’s like your heart has been kissed by beauty.”

something can be so much more than the parts it took to make it, and why people need things around them that lift them above their lives and make them feel the miracle of living.

“There’s nothing like a head-strong woman to make you happy to be alive.”