Bright light burns into my retinas as I step on to the back porch in my bare feet. The sky is intense, shining brightly after days of gray soup, sleet, and ice. Goosebumps pop up along with the hairs on my bare arm as I leave the warm air inside to be assaulted by the cold outdoors. Yet hope for a warmer day and early signs of spring are on today’s agenda.
I Met a Girl
As a young teen, probably 14, I saw a girl at a party, and she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. I watched and stared until I got up the courage to ask her to dance, and we danced to “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” Slow dancing, with a beautiful girl, was something that had never happened to me. The feeling was incredible.
Soon my mom was dropping me off at her house — supervised, of course. I remember one day, after a harsh winter, at the first sign of spring, probably 50 degrees, we walked to a local park and laid out on a blanket looking up at the sky, celebrating the return of warmer air and sunshine. The park was filled that day with others doing the same, as if it were summer. All celebrating spring in unison.
Old Flames Die Out
My time with that girl ended at some point, I’m not sure why, but to this day I hold that first innocent exposure to boy-meets-girl dear in my heart. Like many of our old flames, I sometimes saw her on Facebook. We were both in a local “Up with People” group back then, where we developed a lot of friendships. She married one of the other boys, and after decades together, he passed a few years ago. She seems to have disappeared.
One Sunday, while I was still seeing this girl, we hopped in the car, drove an hour or two with her mom, and drove through the gates of a big property with lots of red brick houses, a vivid memory. Soon we were sitting and talking with her dad. Until then, I had no idea he was in a rehab facility. It was my first realization that alcoholism existed and that it could tear families apart. But weeks later, he returned home, and things felt back to normal.
Other Passions
Not only was I in love with his daughter (at least I thought I was), I had fallen in love with radio. I had managed to get a Saturday and Sunday radio show on a local college station, and so anything to do with radio was cool to me. Knowing that, her dad found and restored an old radio as a gift to me. That led me to a lifetime of collecting antique radios — a passion I lost a decade ago, selling most of them off, but keeping a few favorites. That one I’ll never sell.
Looking back on my passions, my interests, and even my love interests, some stuck, while others lasted only a little while. Some I loved so passionately, I made deep commitments, but others were shed after a season.
Few Things Stick
In almost every case, I had told myself that this interest, this passion, would never die, but only a few things have stuck throughout my life. It’s why, when I’m coaching my son about his passion for a girl who does not seem to share his feelings, I can lend the perspective that she probably won’t be the only one. But to him, as it did with me, it seems like the end of the world.
Love Lost, Again
I can remember sitting on the edge of my bed, sobbing, with my grandmother comforting me over the loss of another girl who was, at the time, my great love (there were many, till I found my true great love). It was the end of the world, I could not go on without her. But I healed, and when she came back to me many years later in hopes of getting together again, I had moved on. She popped in to explore getting back together several times over the years, perhaps realizing that she did feel the same for me as I had for her. Even toward the end of her life, she approached me again, but I was in a better place.
Floating in the Clouds
In the moment, we lose perspective, we are smitten with passion, we are addicted to the dopamine rush — there is no better feeling than floating on the cloud of new love. Practicality rarely enters the room when new love is present. But eventually it rears its ugly head, at which time we realize it’s either time to go, or time to stay. And if we’re really lucky, we realize that there is more to life than fresh and new, and it’s replaced by stable and secure, with the realization that the depth of love isn’t fireworks, but a small burning candle that never goes out, even when the trials of life and child-rearing take their toll. There are times when the wind is blowing and the flame flickers, and there are moments when it briefly seems to die but soon reignites itself. True love is an eternal flame. I’m lucky to have found that.
Fields of Flowers
Springtime, like fresh love, brings new hope. Soon, here in Texas, fields will be covered with bluebonnets as far as the eye can see, followed by fields of orange flowers called Indian paintbrush, followed by the LYFs (little yellow flowers).
And spring will come to you soon. After the harshness of winter, spring renews our spirit. Life isn’t all springtime; we have to endure all the seasons, including the autumn, when the leaves of love and passion fall, and the winter, when everything freezes. But when facing those moments, there is hope knowing that spring and summer are around the corner, even though sometimes it seems the winter moments in life will never end. They always do.
Eric Rhoads
PS: Lately I’ve been doing a lot of playing. Last week I tried my first portraits in watercolor. Though not terribly successful, I learned a lot and became inspired to master the medium more (using much of what I learned at Watercolor Live). This week, I bought about 50 pounds of Monster Clay and I’ve been doing my first full-size bust of a head, just to see if I can do it. I’m having a lot of fun trying things I’ve not done before, and it’s making me more excited about everything else. I encourage you to play, to get outside your comfort zone, try something new, get out of your routines.
This week, starting Wednesday the 9th with Beginner/Refresher Day, is my virtual conference called PleinAir Live. If you don’t know the term, plein air is a French term that has come to mean outdoor painting. This virtual conference is all about landscape painting (studio and outdoors), and it features 30 of the best landscape painters alive, including people teaching from other countries. We will have a massive audience, a chance to learn for three days, March 10-12 (four days if you do the Beginner/Refresher day on the 9th, which you can sign up for without the rest of the event). And there are replays you can watch if you can’t make the dates or if you want to rewatch. This might just be the thing you need to pull you out of your comfort zone.
Also going on at Streamline this week…
Plein Air Salon Entry Deadline
$30,000 Art Competition/Deadline: March 31, 2022
Annual Winners Will Be Announced Live at PACE on May 17 in Santa Fe, NM.
Enter this monthly online competition to win cash prizes and recognition. Monthly category winners will be entered into the Annual Competition where the Grand Prize is $15,000 cash and the cover of PleinAir Magazine. Enter one of our 18 categories in plein air and in studio painting.
Learn more. Share
3rd Annual Plein Air Live Virtual Conference
Virtual Event: March 9-12, 2022
Beginners Day: March 9
March 6 is the last day to save up to $300 on a ticket
Replays available if you can’t make the date.
PleinAir magazine presents Plein Air Live, a 4-day online training event featuring 30 of the world’s top landscape and plein air artists doing demonstrations and presentations. Join thousands of artists from around the world to take your work to the next level and learn about the plein air lifestyle and how to become a part of it.
Eric, The article took my breath away… I remember my first kiss under a blanket in a Florida sun shower with my first wife in 1974. I thought there could be no other. But alas, as time grew on our marriage, the differences between us were exposed and exploited, not in a good way. I only hoped I could find new love and over a short time I did. And rather than the engine being the passion of my first marriage, (not that it does not exist now), the bond is one of mutual respect, honoring the other, and what we can do to make the other happy instead of what can the other do to make the “me” happy.
Happy to also call Texas home… Spring, just north of Houston. Have been painting about 18 months now at the young age of 70.
Just beautiful, Eric! Thank you for always sharing your thoughts and life with everyone. Life can be so hard. I’m blessed to have my art to keep me sane.
God Bless,
Bonnie Ludwig
I know you had a love for radio, so did I, but mine was a different kind of love. My dad owned a radio and tv repair shop all his life. I spent most of my time as a youth sitting at his work bench learning how to repair transistor radios! I think I could do it blind folded. My dad loved to teach his craft and I was the only one of three girls that was willing to learn! That was my special time with him.
Wonderful Eric!
Wonderful Perspective.
It is always there.
sometimes we just need to remove the ‘fog’
I love this post, Eric, although we have never met except through your Morning Coffee. Again, you brought back memories. I remember well the UP WITH PEOPLE group and thought they (you) were wonderful. It was so wholesome and upbeat, and made us all feel better. I have traveled through Texas more than once but have never seen the blue bonnets in bloom, only photos. Still unsatisfied, one day I painted, partly from photos, a painting of the beautiful fields of BB. At least I have that to look at. Mrs. Johnson should be applauded for her idea.
I so enjoy your essays although occasionally I have to go to my junk file to find it!!
Have a wonderful Spring; it will be here in the blink of an eye.
Thank you for these thoughts today. Brings back many memories in the winter of my years and some smiles but few regrets.
I loved your story.
I wonder how many of us feel like that about our first love that was lost not because the candle went out but because someone else made a decision to change our life without our even knowing at the time.
It was beautifully written and bought lots of memories to mind.
Thank you.
I am sucking in the beauty of winter and the heavy snows but in 3 months we will have such a welcome spring pop up here in Alpine Wyoming. Loved your Sunday letter…I look forward to your letters.
Dear Eric,
I am struck by the bittersweet story of your lost and found loves.
So happy to find that you are with your forever love.
I’m a recent subscriber of PleinAir Magazine and like the fact
that I have found this new community.
Anne
What I appreciate about your Sunday sharing is how personal you make it. The message is there in a way that has meaning because you make it relatable..
Thank you.
I love your description of “True Love”. I was lucky and found mine when I was 15 and he was 17. (my first date !) 52 years of Marriage later, he is part of my soul. He has encouraged my journey into painting all along the way as I have encouraged his passions also.
I enjoy your opinions as well as your writing style and of course, I admire your wonderful gift of art.
Thank you!
Good stories with truthful emotions , it made me think back at my own youth . I will kiss my Husband with thankfulness when he comes back front Buffalo hunting , that not only did I choose him but he choose me .
Thank you, Eric, for your uplifting words. Every Sunday, I look forward to your email, which starts my day and then my week off in such a positive way. I am so glad you have that wonderful gift of writing and the ability to communicate. You are a treasure. Bunny
Happy Sunday! Your beautiful, heartfelt writings are always inspiring and uplifting. Many thanks!
Enjoy your insights on life & living!
Thank you, Eric! I resonate with your words about love being like a flickering candle. Our candle has been flickering recently, the one between my husband and I as he has had several health challenges. But he’s seeming a bit revived, and perhaps by spring and the freshness of my announced retirement, he will spring more fully back to life. I am grateful for your work and look forward to Watercolor Live!
Hi Eric. This was a great newsletter. I really liked reading these thoughts today. So much to think about, so much hope, & so much love . Thank you.
So refreshing over Sunday morning coffee. Thank you.
Thank you, Eric. We all think it, but you say it! And say it beautifully!
One of the most beautifully written stories on life, it rings true and very positive in this workd where so many only put out negativity
Thank you.
Dear Eric,Sitting alone in a movie theater last week, I watched the current Academy Award nominee and remake of West Side Story, with tears streaming from my eyes. Not that I hadn’t seen it before, I had including all its remakes over the years as well as the original movie. But never before had this story of love at first sight and then tragically lost affected me so profoundly. But I knew why it had.
A little over a year ago, on April 15, as I gripped his hand, my husband of over 61 years slipped away. Five hours before he had suffered a head on collision with another car and I had learned of it only two hours before he was gone. If he could have spoken to me and I to him,what would he have said? What would I? It had been love at first sight when his gaze had resulted in a blind date and after I
saw him, mine was confirmed.
We were college freshmen. A year and a half later we married, finished college and began a life far different from anything I could have imagined. After l helped my Air Force ROTC cadet pin on his brown bars we headed south to his first assignment in Homestead Florida where the Cuban missile crisis
and an offer to get an MA in business if he agreed to serve as a launch control officer at Ellsworth AFB South Dakota determined his career’s course. Many an assignment’s twists and turns gave us unique challenges and opportunities as we careened from
the winter blizzards of northern climates to sunny Vandenberg AFB California and delicious Azores Portugal. By then blessed with two sons, I settled in Hawaii after he volunteered for Viet Nam. Our boys were lucky after almost completing elementary school in Hawaii to almost complete high school at the next assignments, the Pentagon and War College while living in Virginia. Next phase was back to missile assignments when both sons entered the Air Force Academy and we continued for the remainder of his 33 year career to move between three places, Cheyenne, Wyoming, Omaha, Nebraska and Vandenberg AFB, California. As retirement approached, he decided to go back to his roots as a 5th generation Texan and we ended up in Austin. What about me? No Texan, this girl met and fell for an Air Force Chaplain’s son whose dad had retired in Austin. He tried many business adventures while also helping to care for his folks as they lived into their 90s. So many adventures as we traveled the world and I seriously continued following my dream
to be a water media artist after having to defer it for so many years.(Our military quarters just didn’t have space for a decent studio and in our last 15 years we moved an average of twice a year.) So how did two people so different in personality, and interests continue as partners in life for so long? Maybe it was that opposites really do attract. Like magnets with an opposing force, we completed and complemented each other. Where one was weak, the other excelled.
Anyway, love at first site didn’t lie and like Romeo and Juliet,Tony and Maria we connected with a glance that survived a lifetime.
Your wisdom is so profound and refreshing! This is my first Sunday Coffee and I couldn’t have enjoyed it more. I can’t wait for next Sunday to enjoy more of your pearls of wisdom. THANK YOU so very much for spreading the Sunshine!
Just love the wisdom that you always seem to share! Thank you!
I once had a first love like that. Even now at 85 it still haunts me. Jim
Thank you for your lovely share. Cool that you are from Texas. I live in Dallas and am a proud member of the Outdoor Painters Society. We have a great Arboretum with tons of bulbs of every color. I mostly do my PleinAir painting there. Lately I have been experiencing spring blossoming in people as well. Everywhere I go, it seems, there’s a certain bursting or resurgence or new beginnings or generally excitement from the people I meet day to day. Thank you again for all you do for us artists.
I ESPECIALLY ENJOY YOUR WRITINGS. VERY READABLE.
You have a beautiful writing voice, I really enjoy your messages.
Thank you,
Sandra Bos
Cookeville, Tn.
sandrabos.com
That’s a good one, Eric. Thank You.
Dear Eric,
What a wonderful and wonderfully written Sunday Morning offering. It certainly resonates with me, having lived many years and been through ALL that. New love, young love is so completely different than true and enduring love, but each one has its own special gifts, different though they are.
Thank you for this beautiful bit of writing and considering – the return of spring. Especially THIS year.
Lynne
Good Sunday to you, Eric! Such beauty and inspiration in your heartfelt words ! I appreciate and treasure them every Sunday. Many, many thanks – your impact goes far deeper than you could possibly know. Looking for your inspiring book someday! Always in Christ, Frances.
I’ve been painting most of my life as a professional artist…I with other artists would go out painting on location many times and it was great.
I remember one day some artist mentioning that she paints Plein Air, I was stumped along with many other artists I painted with.
We asked, what the heck is that? She replied that it was a French way of saying, Painting on location.
I was again stumped and asked when did this start? I am not French so I don’t get it, why not just say on location?
To me it sounds like a snotty way of saying painting on location. I can’t get used to saying that and will stick with the English way.
My other artist friends always scoffed at that also…Maybe we’re just stuck in our old ways and it just sounds funny, also we are not French.
I don’t mean no disrespect but it’s strange…