When I was in grade school I remember dreading any assignment involving drawing—I was convinced I was a sub-standard artist and tended to throw away a drawing before it was even finished due to frustration, embarrassment, and anger over my perceived inability to ‘get it right.’
My tree certainly didn’t look like my neighbor’s tree—think of a brown telephone poll with a green balloon on top for me, and a gracefully arching oak trunk with varied and many branches and green leaves for my neighbor. (Or so I saw.)
The greatest gift of words a kind teacher gave me was the admonishment to, “Don’t throw it away! Keep working on it—it is your work, and no one else’s.”
Now imagine some of our most famous artists: Miro, Jackson Pollock, Picasso.
Their rendering of common objects seeks not to be recognized by the viewer’s eye so much as by the viewer’s spirit.
What is the feeling we get when we see a tree? How does that look on a canvas?
Now apply this to your marriage or another intimate and important relationship.
Your relationship is a piece of art that reflects beauty insofar as it speaks with truth to the dance between you and your partner.
Your relationship should not look like or be judged against anyone else’s. It is yours. Let it grow into itself.