CHRISTMAS LOST
I’m sure the story of this painting will have individual and personal meaning to many who’ll remember Christmas of 2021.
My wife Joy and I have had over 50 Christmas mornings together. By far, Christmas 2021 was one of the most difficult. In my many years of service with the RCMP, we found ourselves from time to time in isolated posts. That meant we didn’t have the opportunity to travel and be with family at Christmas a few times. But, we were able to plan and anticipate that circumstance, and Christmas still had a sense of celebration and intimacy. But, as Christmas 2021 approached, so too did a pandemic variant called – Omicron. Its threat and reality brought with it travel restrictions and ominous warnings. Only a day before we were to travel to Victoria to be with our entire family, we cancelled our trip. We’d be alone for Christmas.
This Christmas isolation was different though. Previously, with anticipated isolation, gifts, baking and other Christmas goodies would have been sent weeks earlier, in both directions. Joy had spent the last couple of weeks preparing, wrapping, baking and creating. So too, from over in Victoria, our grandchildren and families had done the same. We’d be together to share and celebrate. But now, only a day before we left, the decision was made that we’d stay at home here in Gibsons. Circumstance had created a unique isolation for all of us. There would be no exchange this year, no Christmas dinner together. Christmas would have a hollow reality for all of us.
And so, as I painted this image depicting the Christmas snows of the west coast, I found myself lamenting and feeling a sense of loss. So many of us have had the same feeling this year. I know I’m not alone in that emotion.
Whenever we do go to Victoria to visit, one of the first things we’ll do as a family is to go for a walk together. There are so many trails, beaches and hillsides to explore. It’s the best way for family to celebrate in those first few hours of togetherness. This particular painting is of the trail at Willing Park in Langford. We often walk this groomed trail as a family, sometimes twice a day.
I’ve depicted the image with one lonely set of footprints in the new-fallen snow. In truth, there should have been a flurry of footprints cast asunder throughout the entire scene. The pure energy of togetherness would have been traced in those snowy footprints. But this lone, linear set of footprints tells the story. In spite of the beauty and serenity of the scene, all of us, and many of you, feel the profound reality of the lonely fact that in 2021, this was a “Christmas Lost”.
