It will most likely pass as a normal day for most folks. Well, it will pass as normal as a day in 2020 can be. I will not be among the folks counting today as normal. I will mark September 14th as a day of victory, graduation, and commencement. For the first time since 1998, I finished an artistic work. Took 22 years, but it’s done.

It’s a comical looking redwood. The lines are thick and choppy, the subject representations are ridiculously inaccurate, and a few edges of paper I had to glue to a wooden panel managed to poke through the resin top coat. I’m not being overly critical. It’s so deeply flawed I can’t help but laugh.

The victory is in the doing and completion. I didn’t chuck in the trash or leave it unfinished (to eventually end up in the trash.) I envisioned an original piece of art, I did the work, and I finished it. It was an emotion month. I had to battle through fears of rejection, inadequacy, ineptitude. But, I did it.

It also seems like a graduation of a kind. This drawing represents a voyage from the depths of shameful inferiority to the peaks of faith and acceptance. The air up here is clean and crisp. Every breath has purpose, and life is not a confusing maze of wrong choices. I no longer covet praise. I no longer look to the future to escape the dull present. I am being me, and it is good.

Today was also a beginning, the aforementioned commencement. After every victory and graduation is a small party. It is a chance to celebrate and reflect a hard day won. As it must, the next day comes and life continues on. Thankfully I did not aspire to win a small victory. If the sun rises, so will I. If the rain comes, I will work in the rain. I fought hard for this moment, and I will now collect more of them. Soon my shelves will overflow with the trophies won from facing fear, and I won’t stop there.

No. I won’t stop there. I’ll teach others how to climb the mountain, to leave their despair, and breath the fresh air.

Lord, thank you for today. Thank you for loving me and sticking with me. I’m so thankful you cut me out off all the lives I tried to live. I love you, and I look forward to the next chapter.