As I painted “Geometric Peaks”, I thought about the multitude of things that make up life in the physical sense. We come from the earth and many of us spend our lives climbing around the physical obstacles that build up in our lives. They seem to pile on until they are mountainous in complexity. I remember a moment when life for me had reached a point where everything depended on that mountain of circumstances. I was in a meeting as a member of the administrative staff of a large department store. The demands from the top were overwhelming. The day before had been my scheduled day off for the week. I took it off and went fishing. In the meeting I was asked by the senior manager where I was and why I didn't show up for work even though he knew it was my day off. I told him I was at the lake, and he asked me what I thought was a stupid question, "What were you doing?" It hit me to my core. He knew what I was doing. I had been fishing a few times with him on that lake. My reply was "I was practicing." Puzzled, he asked me what I was practicing. Suddenly, I was done, the mountain of pressure came crashing down and I said quite seriously, "I was practicing walking on water."

Suddenly I felt like the mountain lion in this painting. I was the now the predator. I took my store keys out of my pocket and slid them across the conference table and told to take them if he wanted them. I kept my job, stress free until it was convenient to leave.