A Yellow Table, from Queen Brown

There are not enough hours in the day...at least that's how I feel today. A conversation at work about the need to try to scale back on multi-tasking. Focusing is so indescribably delicious, when one is given the chance.

So I need to keep things simple today. I found a beautiful drawing made years ago by a woman named Queen Brown, a daytime resident of the Willows Care Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, where I had the privilege of teaching an art class for elderly participants. This was sponsored by COMPAS, an extraordinary organization that has offered meaningful community arts opportunities to countless people over the years.

Queen would focus intently, talking only once in awhile. She had a regal bearing, just like her name, and took a great deal of pride in her images. They came out of her, from her long thin graceful gnarled hands, one patient and deliberate gesture at a time. This yellow table, with its embellished hem, never fails to fill me with a kind of calm satisfaction. Trying to remember to channel Queen.