When Love Returns

A year and a half ago, I had a creative adventure with an octopus.

It began as a simple Instagram reel. I poured brilliant blues and fiery oranges across a large canvas with alcohol inks, intending to create an abstract background for a future painting. Then the canvas sat on my easel for more than a month.

Every time I walked past it, I saw the same thing.

An octopus.

Surrounded by marigolds.

I can't explain how I knew it was there, but I could see it as clearly as if it had already been painted. The strange part was that I wanted nothing to do with it. I resisted that painting for weeks. I argued with myself. Why an octopus? It didn't mean anything to me. I wasn't fascinated by octopuses. It certainly wasn't something I would normally paint.

Yet the feeling wouldn't leave.

Eventually the pull became stronger than the resistance, and I finally picked up my brush.

I decided to use our newly released Vivid paints because I wanted to create something that demonstrated just how extraordinary they are. I painted a glowing light behind the octopus's head, making the fiery oranges recede while warm turquoise surged forward. Any artist knows those colors should behave exactly the opposite way. Orange normally advances. Turquoise usually falls back. That visual tension is part of what makes the painting feel so alive.

The painting came with surprising ease. When it was finished, I still didn't understand it. I simply gave it the title Garden of Dreams because it felt beautiful. I had no idea that one day I would look back and realize I wasn't painting an octopus at all.

Over the years I've noticed something curious. Every once in a while, a painting feels different. I resist it. I don't understand why I'm painting it. Yet something deeper than logic insists I keep going.

More often than not, those paintings become strangely prophetic.

They don't simply capture my life.

They arrive before it.

A year later, I'm living my life with purpose and intent. I have big plans and dreams for the future, but I found myself feeling unchallenged, uninspired, unaffirmed, and alone. At the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026 something inside of me begins to shift in a dramatic way. Old patterns of thought begin to weaken. Theories and beliefs that formed a religious fortress in my heart begin to fade and show themselves for who they are. Rigid, stubborn, long held doctrines melt into hope, possibilities, and a softness in my heart.

I started to disagree with myself that this is just how it is. I've made my choices and nothing better can come my way. I had made peace with disappointment. For years I had settled for less than what my heart longed for. But now I quietly and not so boldly took a small stand and began to open up to more possibilities. My thoughts began to explore that this isn't my best life. I realized I can only have agency over myself. I have zero control over someone else's choices. The desires and expectations we may have for our partners could be projections of ourselves. Potential is not potential, it is what we would do if we were in our partner's shoes.

I started to see how arrogant and unjust it is for me to create someone in my own image. To hope and believe for more and better and to have the expectation that God will fulfill the long held desires of my heart is alignment with heaven. To settle, and resign myself to what is less or a low bar, is agreement with unbelief. Faith is the substance of what is hoped for. Yet the respect for someone else's will and the preservation of their freedom is above all, most important.

These changes within me were shattering, significant, life altering. At the beginning of the year, I chose to love again. Not just the love of another, but the return of hope, possibility, and the quiet belief that my best days may still be ahead. I began to stand a little taller. I started to dream a little bigger. A glow returned to my eyes that I had forgotten. My steps became more certain because I finally believed that a beautiful future is still possible.

New relationships developed, old relationships turned away from me, and some other familiar relationships refashioned. Everything was different. Even myself. But a new fire flamed inside of me. A clearer vision of my dreams formed, and love returned. My heart began to feel new things it had never felt. I felt safe and secure and seen and known and held. I felt supported like never before. I never realized how alone I had felt in the past.

Earlier this year, our mentor manager, Casey Wakefield, introduced our team to one of the most fascinating personality profiles I've ever taken. Instead of assigning letters or numbers, it grouped people into four archetypes: Dolphins, Eagles, Wolves, and Octopuses, each with additional layers that made every profile unique.

I tested as a Dolphin.

One person in particular tested as an Octopus.

As I learned about the Octopus personality, I found myself smiling. Their minds work differently. They are thoughtful, deeply analytical, quietly creative, empathetic, self-aware, and able to solve incredibly complex problems from perspectives most people never see. The more I learned, the more I realized how much I admired the way an Octopus sees the world.

I didn't know I wanted an octopus in my life. I didn't know I needed to feel safe and secure to become soft and have an increased capacity to love.

Suddenly I couldn't stop thinking about that painting.

Why had I painted an Octopus?

Why had I been so resistant to it?

And why had I painted a radiant glow behind its head, surrounded by marigolds, without knowing what it meant?

Then the Octopus began showing up everywhere.

Someone gave me an octopus coffee mug for my birthday. My grandson received an octopus stuffed animal. I found myself sketching octopuses again. They seemed to appear wherever I turned, quietly reminding me of something I still couldn't quite put into words.

Then came Greece.

For years I have admired the extraordinary craftsmanship of Dimitrios Exclusive. As a young woman, I dreamed of owning their jewelry and slowly built a collection of treasured pieces. Then, years ago, much of that collection was stolen from me in Rome. I was devastated.

Ironically, replacing those pieces became the beginning of an unexpected friendship.

I reached out to Dimitrios Exclusive to purchase some of the jewelry I had lost. Over time, that relationship grew into a partnership. We began carrying their jewelry in our gallery. I invited Vasilis and his brother George to serve as guest judges for Outstanding Artist, and over the years our friendship deepened.

Last month, while I was in Greece, Vasilis invited me to come to his workshop. He smiled and set a stack of designs and photos of the octopus collection in front of me. I realized the moment I saw the designs that something incredibly special was happening. This was not typical. It was truly a magical moment of serendipity.

Pendants, a bracelet, earrings, and a ring.

Handcrafted in sterling silver and gold, with semi-precious stones.

Inspired by Garden of Dreams.

I don't know if I've ever been more speechless.

As a teenager, if someone had told me that one day a collection of Dimitrios jewelry would be inspired by one of my paintings, I honestly think I would have laughed. It would have seemed impossible.

Yet there it was.

A dream I never knew I had...

waiting for me all along.

Looking back now, I don't really see an octopus anymore.

I see a promise.

A reminder that our deepest dreams often begin forming long before we understand them. That God is sometimes writing a story we cannot yet read. That the life we're called to live often starts beneath the surface, quietly growing while we're still learning to believe it's possible.

That's why I have named this collection Dreams of the Deep.

Because I believe the dreams that matter most aren't the ones we invent.

They're the ones already planted deep within us.

Waiting.

Waiting for courage.

Waiting for hope.

Waiting for the right people.

Waiting for the moment we finally choose to rise.

My hope is that every time you wear one of these pieces, you'll remember that your own Garden of Dreams may already be growing beneath the surface. You may not be able to see it yet, but if there's one thing this octopus has taught me, it's this:

Sometimes the most beautiful chapters of our lives begin long before we recognize we're living them.

The Dreams of the Deep pre-sale is open

The pre-sale of this exquisite jewelry starts now, and it runs for only a few days. Every pre-sale order receives a free fine art print of Garden of Dreams, and all orders ship within 30 days.

Visit the Dreams of the Deep collection to choose your piece.