I was struck by something I heard recently. In a podcast I was listening to, someone said that each new person who is born is a whole new universe. We are a whole new universe of connections that have never been before.
I immediately understood that sentiment because sometimes I pick a random person walking past me in the street and I think, “That person has a whole life of friends, family and connections that have nothing to do with me. They are the centre of that world. I know nothing about that world, and yet it exists alongside and as real and vast as mine. All their experiences are entirely relative to them like mine are relative to me.”
Each person is the centre of their own universe. All relationships, thoughts, dreams, hopes, ideas, actions, words and creations all extend out from that person. That universe can only exist because that one person exists and that universe will never exist again apart from them. You are the centre of yours; I am the centre of mine. I am not saying we are the most important person in it, but, positioning God within it aside, we are the thing around which our entire experience pivots.
I wanted to express that idea somehow, and all the facets of it, so last week I painted this:
“The Universe Within”
By Lisa Saul
Watercolour, 9×11 inches, November 2022
There is a universe of possibilities within each of us, as represented by the universe in her dress, and the symbol of great hope in the large rising full moon. We see a vantage point that no one else has seen before us or after us, as shown by the way she stands on her own and views the landscape below and about. There’s hope in it, and there is great beauty in it, but there’s also vulnerability and loneliness. The woman in the painting has a slight vulnerability about her stance and there is a fragility and loneliness there. There’s a sense of longing in the painting. Having all the possibilities and opportunities unique to us can also make us feel isolated and misunderstood. It is the two sides of the coin.
The big rising moon also represents that sometimes we look outside of ourselves and things that are beyond us seem bigger and brighter and better – the things we think we can’t attain. We think it is the ‘universe without’ but it is just the dazzle of the moon which we make larger in our eyes. In the painting, there are no stars in the sky or comets or planets. There is no ‘universe without’. It is just the moon we’ve made ‘larger-than-life’ when all the while there is an entire universe within us and a connection to the creator of it all and possibilities beyond imagining. No matter where else she stands, no matter where she travels to, no matter what else happens “out there”, that universe goes with her. The moon, however, is only up for a short time – it is rising, changing – and then it will be day, or a “different” moon.
The woman in the painting is caught in the moon’s dazzling bright light that lights up everything around her, but she also glows from within, a halo of light just peeping around her. The moon shines big and bright, yes, and in our eyes it looks like the biggest, brightest thing around, but it can’t overpower the light within. We just have to have eyes to see it. Oftentimes, though, it is a light others see in us instead. We don’t see it ourselves because our eyes are too fixed on the unattainable and we are too busy thinking we are too small and too insignificant, too disconnected from everything, and too much in the shadows and just one person, so how could we possibly matter. “Too … too … too …”
The woman in the painting stands on a precipice overlooking the landscape. We can feel stuck sometimes, trapped on the edge of things, unable to move on, unable to get “out there” where things seem to be happening, or unable to grab hold of that always unattainable moon rising and so never truly a part of the world outside of us. And yet always within us, there is an entire universe of untapped creativity and potential and connections and relationships that no one else has. We have everything we need to do extraordinary and wonderful things and change the universe we are the centre of. We just need to see the possibilities and connections and relationships God has planted within us. I heard it said once that what the world needs most is for you to be you, and me to be me because no one else in the world can be you and only I can be me, and God put you on this earth to be you for such a time as this.
The complete piece also represents the idea of time and seasons and cycles. Sometimes the possibilities and the hope and the purposes laid before us must go through their seasons, as represented by the full moon in the sky and the crescent moon in the universe showing in her dress; the bright myriad stars of a dark winter’s night in the dress and the lack of stars in the early evening summer sky; and cycles of comets that take their traceable path through the universe over long, slow periods of time. We cannot always do in the winter what we could in the summer, and different years bring different things to the map of our universe. The full moon will bring different changes to our landscape than the crescent, but that does not mean the universe within us has closed and hope is lost, or that possibilities have passed and God has abandoned us.
It is a warm summer night, as shown by the short sleeves of her dress, but there are deeper colours in her dress and she almost, but not quite, looks a little cold. Sometimes we are at odds or out of season with the world beyond us. That is normal. We’ve all been there. Is our task to move with the seasons of what is within us, or without?
Seasons. Cycles. Change. But always that universe of hope and possibilities and purpose within. No matter what the season without us, that universe remains. Will we tap into it, celebrate it, and see the awesome power of possibilities within?
That is the story behind the art, but perhaps you see something else in it? Tell me in the comments below. That’s one of the great things about art. We bring our own universe of experiences, ideas, creativity and connections to it and it takes on a whole new life when each unique person looks at it.
This watercolour piece will be coming to a print and maybe a card or stationery in 2023. If you’d like to see it as a particular product, let us know below.
About the Author: Lisa Saul
