I actually looked

I actually looked at my painting in progress. Eyes stopped flitting, mind stopped on overdrive. Eyes sloooowed. I looked, that’s it. The textures, colours, edges of shapes, layers of paint, energy on the surface. I opened myself up to what was right in front of me the whole time. My feet stopped floating and I planted them firmly on the ground.
Before theory, before concept, before ideas, before opinion and harsh self-talk, before values and standards, before me, there is the painting.