Original Watercolor Giveaway Inspired by How the Light Gets In

Original Watercolor Giveaway Inspired by How the Light Gets In

 

I don’t know a stronger woman than Anna Floyd, and I know many strong women. I first met Anna close to ten years ago through a mutual friend. I was a newlywed, and Anna was finishing up her nursing degree. Our paths crossed once more—at that mutual friend’s baby shower—and sitting at a round table, eating chocolate cake, Anna told me about her beloved fiancé, Trevor Floyd.

Anna and Trevor were married for five years, and with two young children, when he suddenly passed away last fall from an undetected heart condition. In the past year, Anna has processed great love and great loss through beautifully-rendered words and watercolor paintings.

A friend once said that whatever we’re given, we need to break and pour out like Mary with her alabaster jar. I thought about that today, as I read Anna’s words, as I looked at her paintings.

Last year, Anna was handed a grief none of us would choose to bear, and yet she didn’t keep it close. Instead, she broke that terrible grief and poured it out, offering strength to those following her journey, for though our life path may be different from hers, grief is universal.

We all love and, because of that love, we are going to lose. Anna dares us to love anyway. She dares, despite her own loss, to offer us hope.

From Anna:

I paint to express joy and heartbreak. I paint to process; to dream of what was, and to stubbornly hope for goodness to come. With paint, I express a sigh, a silent scream, or a heart-laugh. I am a mother of toddlers, a young widow, and incredibly loved. I paint to express fleeting moments of beauty and wonder in the mundane, and to capture moments that should never be forgotten.

If you visit Anna’s Instagram and website, you will see that she believes as I do: that our lives are richer—our souls fuller—when we are taking the time to create. Still, I am humbled that she used what little time she does have to paint a watercolor of Ruth and Elam in the flooded cranberry field.

I didn’t get to meet Anna’s Trevor, but I will never forget her joy as she told me about him, or the example of unconditional love Anna and Trevor set in their five years of marriage that challenges my own. My prayer for this giveaway is to encourage Anna as she’s going through a season of immense change and to dare, despite loss, to offer the world hope.

 

 

 

How the Light Gets In Watercolor Giveaway!