I created this image with January, the mother of a friend of mine. It was touching watching my friend draw the words on her mother’s belly. There are two hearts: one for each of her children.

This was simple and beautiful and didn’t involve a lot of reflection on my part. A mother loving her children seems natural, what we all hope to see. However, January did have this insight to add: “We like someone because, we love someone despite.” Interesting.

On my drive home I pulled over on one of the dark roads in the Santa Cruz hills, got out of my car and sat under the stars. I thought about how whatever created this world was, if I may wax anthropomorphic for a moment, expressing love. For what is creation other than love? To desire something so much that you get down and dirty and put the time and energy into creating it. It was a nice insight that I had never really framed in that way before. As Massive Attack sings “Love is a verb. Love is a doing word.”

Click here to see a portrait of January.