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    The Painting
    The Painting
    The Painting
    Ebook138 pages1 hour

    The Painting

    By Kathleen J. Shields

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    We start our lives as a blank canvas. It's our diverse experiences that add color and definition to our painting.

    Gerald was given a blank canvas in which to paint anything he wanted. He painted a world. A world that he loved so much – it came to life! The personal growth and the steps Gerald took to protect his creation is what truly made him exceptional.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherErin Go Bragh Publishing
    Release dateOct 21, 2015
    ISBN9781310661327
    The Painting
    Author

    Kathleen J. Shields

    Kathleen J. Shields is an award winning author, having won first place for Best Educational Children’s Series from the Texas Association of Authors in 2015, and the Purple Dragonfly Award in 2017 for the Hamilton Troll Cookbook.She has 27 published books ranging from illustrated children’s books, tween chapter books, young adult and adult, as well as Christian Fiction.She is currently working on the third book of The Painting Trilogy, her memoirs, along with a fun factual story called Turtle Diaries. Her hope is to teach young readers more interesting tidbits about various turtle species through the first person perspective of a tortoise.During the week, she runs her own businesses (plural); a website and graphic design company, and a publishing house where she assists new authors in making their dreams come to reality.Over the weekends, you can usually find her setup at a market day, craft show, church bizarre or any place that will let her setup a table to promote and sell her books, throughout the Texas Hill Country.She also thoroughly enjoys visiting schools and libraries, reading to young children and inspiring 3rd through 5th graders into using their imaginations to embellish their creative writing skills.

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      Book preview

      The Painting - Kathleen J. Shields

      By Kathleen J. Shields

      This book is a work of fiction. Places, events, and situations in this story are purely fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

      © Copyright 2015, 2016 Kathleen J. Shields. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

      ISBN-13: 978-1-941345-26-9 Paperback

      ISBN-E: 9781310661327 Smashwords

      Canyon Lake, TX

      www.ErinGoBraghPublishing.com

      Introduction

      Our lives are like a blank canvas…

      It’s the paints we add to it, the colors we chose, the brush strokes we decide to take – our life’s decisions - that create the painting that is our existence.

      For some there are dark shadows that diminish any light and blot out our promise and possibility. For others, the light is blinding, and we go in search for some darkness to dull the pain, while others still find a happy medium between the two and yet allow life’s distractions to sway our final outcomes.

      There are various mediums we can use on our canvas. Each type of paint or material or application offers its own unique outcome with an undefined result. Choosing your medium is choosing your path in life.

      Do we opt for an oil based paint, a heavy slow drying pigment where it will take time and heat to cure, where the only way to limit the wait is to use the colors sparingly and miss out on the bold textures of the scene?

      Do we choose pastel sticks or chalk, soft, powdery rods that can be blended together with the tips of our fingers? Softly smoothed, and yet the excess dust is simply blown away with a gust of wind. A substance that would need a fixative sprayed on it to make it permanent and then our canvas could never change.

      Do we prefer watercolor, something that can be washed out, faded and muted? When applied to an absorbent canvas, the edges fan out and are undefined. Or when applied to a smooth plastic paper, the paint can be washed away with a moist cloth as if it never existed in the first place?

      Do we pick crayon, simple, child-like and innocent?

      Do we decide on marker, permanent and doesn’t allow for errors?

      Or do we select pencil with which we can lightly sketch and erase if we don’t like where it is going?

      What about the foundation of our work? Our life’s canvas could be made of paper, cloth, wood, glass, plastic or metal. Each option provides for a unique foundation. Each decision we make will inherently alter our final design.

      This is why we are all so very different from one another. Our life’s canvas begins its journey from the day we are born. The first few years of laying the groundwork isn’t even our decision. We have to take the base we are given and do with it what we can.

      This is why emotion is so important.

      Our feelings, insecurities, and joys all add to our canvas. We paint a world within each of us that is uniquely our own.

      What follows is Gerald’s world – the creator of a universe so complex it needed a second canvas.

      Chapter 1

      Loneliness is not only isolation;

      it’s an inability to blend into the world.

      No matter how much we want to be a part of life,

      loneliness is caused by the continued

      disappointments in others.

      - K

      Gerald wasn’t alone or isolated. He was surrounded by others. Children from school, teachers, his family, even townspeople, all collectively going about their busy lives, not noticing Gerald.

      Of course, not being noticed was better than the alternative.

      Look guys, it’s that weird kid.

      Gerald knew from the gruff voice the speaker was Derek, the boy whose life’s mission was making him feel bad.

      I wonder if he’s going to cry today.

      Gerald endured the verbal torment. That was difficult enough to walk away from, but lately, Derek and his buddies had added physical suffering as well.

      Gerald listened to the boys laughing behind him. His heartbeat quickened as did his breathing. Dread filled his churning stomach as he began walking faster.

      I think the little twerp is scared, Derek added as the boys began chasing after Gerald.

      The boys tackled Gerald to the ground. Face in the dirt, notebooks and pencils scattered, tears in his eyes, Gerald stayed down as the boys laughed, kicked dirt towards him and left.

      When they were far enough away, Gerald slowly gathered his possessions and got back to his feet. His heart ached. His cheek hurt and his elbow was scraped.

      Gerald didn’t understand why they persecuted him. He couldn’t comprehend what it was about picking on him that made them feel better. What he did know was it brought them joy to bring him gloom. The idea that his misery gave pleasure to others perplexed him.

      Gerald saw the world differently. He loved to watch the animals carry out their daily tasks. He wished he could join the fish as they swam in the cool waters. He longed to be a bird flying freely in the sky. He thought it would be fun to be a bunny and hop away from it all.

      As Gerald walked towards his house, he dusted himself off. He reorganized his papers, and wiped the tears from his eyes. Walking up the steps of his front deck, he slowed, making sure his cheeks were dry. As he stood there, he felt the sun beaming down on him. It warmed him inside and out. The brightness brought a smile to his face.

      He sat down on the deck, breathed in the day, allowed the warmth to lift his spirits, and then noticed an inchworm, inching its way across his boards. He watched it slowly straddle a small crack between the panels and pull itself over.

      Gerald realized this tiny crack was like a massive cavern to the inchworm. He looked at the length of his deck and realized that this was like a barren desert that would take all day if not multiple days for this little guy to navigate across. He knew he wanted to help it, but he didn’t want to interfere.

      If he carried the inchworm to the end of the deck, he might end up taking it too far. If he left it at the end of the deck, without the value of the journey, it might become lost and not know where to go from there.

      Gerald also knew that, like the butterfly who must be left alone to strengthen its wings when it emerges from the cocoon, he needed to leave the inchworm alone as well.

      However, as he watched that little worm slowly make his way across each deck board, surprise caught him when he noticed the inchworm suddenly seemed stumped. The separation between the board he was on and the one he intended to reach was huge. It was wider than the inchworm’s entire body. There was no way he could make it across. Gerald realized that without help this little guy would have to turn back around. He would have to travel a day back the way he came.

      He then observed the inchworm looking left and then right. It studied the situation and decided to travel down the board parallel to the cavern in hopes of finding some other way across. He wasn’t willing to give up. This made Gerald smile. The determination this little insignificant inchworm had in getting to his ultimate destination was strong. The pride Gerald felt for it grew more in that moment.

      Since Gerald was larger, able to see so much more, he glanced down at the cavern on both sides of the inchworm. He realized that no matter how long it took that little guy, he would not find a way across. Gerald instantly felt sad. He wanted so much to help, but he also didn’t want that worm’s determination to let him down.

      Gerald stood up, reached for a nearby tree and shook a limb enough to loosen a leaf. He watched that leaf spiral through the air down towards the ground and land a foot in front of the worm.

      Its landing startled the inchworm, but once he realized it was safe he

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