Art doesn’t ask who you are—it asks what brings you peace.

There’s something about waterlilies that keeps calling me back. Since my first visit to MoMA in 2013, where I encountered Matisse’s waterlilies, they’ve stayed with me—soft, steady, and quietly certain. Over time, they’ve become a motif I return to, both in nature and on canvas.

Graceful Petals is a collection of poems, prayers, psalms, and other good words—held within each painting. The waterlilies become a place to rest, floating gently, unfolding without urgency, inviting stillness.

Peace, I’ve found, isn’t only in art. It lives in the everyday—in my mom’s evening messages, my kids coming home from school, watching my dogs sleep, and my husband’s calm face whenever I overreact.

Though peace may not always be present, presence can bring us back to it.