2023

Acrylics and dry pastels

80 x 140 cm

“Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life. RUMI”

When I found myself in the worst period of my life a few years ago, unhappy in my neglected and unhealthy body, completely alone without friends, and with a family I didn’t feel close to, a friend literally saved my life. He gave me a book. In that book, there was teaching. A life philosophy where I found a home, a sense of belonging. And that was the only feeling I really needed to experience in a moment of loneliness and misunderstanding.

Thanks to this philosophy, I was able to start looking at things from another perspective and find the good in them. Before then, I did the exact opposite. Only when I reached the absolute bottom of my existence was I able to appreciate the meaning of this philosophy. Not just talk about it but truly live it—in its full beauty and strength.

Shortly after, I discovered a 21-day gratitude course. The course required following a daily plan and continuing the practice for 21 days, completing several exercises each day without skipping a single one. I was desperate but felt a small hope that it would bring improvement to my life. So, I completed the course exactly as planned. For my wild nature, a huge success.

I learned to appreciate things that otherwise I would never have considered. And I would never have felt deep gratitude for the “ordinary” things, like having two legs that we can walk with, having ears that we can hear with, and having eyes that we can see with. We even included all the negative experiences like wrongs, rejections, and disappointments, for which I had previously thought I would never be grateful.

Once I introduced this new skill into my life, everything changed. Just as this quote says.