In December of 2016, my two-year-old niece Raeya asked me to paint with her. This in and of itself was remarkable. My relationship with Raeya had been such a slow burn (she would scream when I entered the room, and once, on a vacation called me “Aunt Poo” or “Nancy” intermittently), so the fact she was asking me to do anything was amazing.

I was exhausted from travel,  but I headed over to her paint area anyway. When I picked up that paintbrush, I felt this bolt of something … energy? intuition? excitement?… move up my arm.

Friends, I’ve picked up a paintbrush a lot in life – to paint a wall, to do a quick craft, to paint posters or set pieces, and probably even to paint with other children who asked “Aunt Kendra,” but this time was so different. I felt a tingling in my arm and thought “Woah, this feels amazing.” 

That night, in my AirBnb, I looked up art supplies on Amazon and thought “maybe… just maybe I’ll get myself some paints.” That Christmas, I got really sick, and that January even sicker. Soon, I was diagnosed with Epstein Barr.

I was flat on my back for almost two months, running a fever, with a swollen sore throat, and there were days when I would get exhausted getting myself a drink of water or walking to the bathroom.Thankfully, I worked from home, so I was able to lie in bed while taking conference calls and typing emails. It wasn’t fun.

Somewhere, in the middle of that, I remembered Raeya and the paintbrush. I knew I had energy enough to watch YouTube, so I started googling and consuming every bit of instruction I could. And that’s how my days went for almost an entire year.

Bed, work, bed, watch YouTube.
Bed, work, bed, watch YouTube.

Somewhere in there, I started buying paint supplies and getting started, and I suppose the rest (as they say) is history.