While I was painting this, I noticed that a turtle had appeared, holding a large heart in its arms.
The turtle was not hurrying anywhere, and not racing anyone. It simply held what mattered to it and moved slowly forward.
Watching it, I felt our own lives are a little like that.
Something that looks small to others can be the most precious thing you own.
A dream. A memory. Your feelings for someone you love.
Each of us walks our own road, carrying our own heart.
As the painting went on, a fish in a hat, a white bird, sea creatures, mushrooms and plants appeared around the turtle,
and small hearts began to scatter across the whole surface.
It was as if this world had been full of love from the very beginning, and each time you find some of it, new colours and new companions arrive.
Creatures of different shapes, living freely in the same world.
You do not have to be the same as anyone else. You may travel at your own pace.
That message came quietly to me while I painted.
I would be glad if this work reminds you of the heart you are holding —
and if you keep it, and go on with a journey that is yours alone.
At the centre is a single turtle travelling with a large heart in its arms.
The shell, patterned in many colours, looks as though the people and places, the experiences and memories it has met have gathered and taken form.
The heart it carries stands for what truly matters to that one life.
Holding it as if to protect it, the turtle moves forward at its own speed.
Beside it a small fish in a hat keeps company, a white bird crosses the sky, and creatures and plants live in the sea and on the ground.
Every one of them differs in shape and in way of living, and every one has its own place in the same world.
The countless hearts across the surface are not the possession of anyone special: they are the love that exists everywhere in the world.
A small meeting. An ordinary kindness. A thought for someone.
Each of these becomes a small heart, spreading quietly through the world.
The rainbow current that wraps the background crosses the border between sea and sky, between the real and the imagined, and makes a world in which all life is connected.
This is a painting that asks not “where are you going” but “what are you carrying as you go”.
You need not hurry. You may take the long way round.
Holding the heart that matters to you, one step at a time.
Perhaps it is inside such a small journey that a beautiful story, belonging to that person alone, is born.