After The Storm, original canvas painting

I painted this because I, like all humans, have gone through heavy, life altering traumas.   And I, like all humans, have built up some impressive coping mechanisms to get me through.  But sometimes those coping mechanisms are no longer needed. Sometimes we forget that the storm might have actually passed.  We forget to check to see if it is still even raining.  So we walk in the dark heavy shadow of our walls and barriers, and we can't even see the sun has started peeking out. I had an image of myself, walking with my umbrella over my head to protect myself from life's horrible storms.  I was so attached to my umbrella that I was walking with it casting a shadow about me, one so dark that I didn't even know the sky was filled with beautiful colors, rainbows and sunrises and sunsets that I was missing through my trauma scars. The problem with holding tightly to that umbrella is that you miss everything around you right now -- you miss the reality of the current moment lost in a dark sh